Delhi coaching centre deaths: HC agrees to hear PIL on July 31

The Delhi High Court today agreed to hear on July 31 a PIL seeking the constitution of a high-level committee to inquire into the city’s Rajinder Nagar coaching centre incident wherein three UPSC aspirants died in a basement following heavy rain.

Acting Chief Justice Manmohan assured advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, who appeared on behalf of the PIL litigant and mentioned the plea for an urgent hearing, that the matter will be listed on July 31.

The PIL said that due to “huge corruption” in public departments many people have been losing their lives for years and the national capital has faced many terrible and scary incidents in the past few years.

“In Delhi, more than 50% of the commercial buildings are running in an illegal manner and many of them are running in residential areas that too without having any proper approval and clearances, and the respondents (authorities) are well aware of their illegal functioning but are allowing them just for the sake of some bribery amount,” it said.

The plea said that the right to die with dignity is also a fundamental right like as right to life with dignity as provided by Article 21 of the Constitution of India, however, the Delhi authorities failed to provide life with dignity or at least the right to die with dignity to the citizens and people are dying because of their “negligence”.

It may be recalled that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on July 29 formed a committee to inquire about the incident claiming three lives in the national capital on July 27.

In a post on X, the MHA said, “We have constituted a committee to inquire about the unfortunate incident at a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar in New Delhi. The committee will inquire into the reasons, fix responsibility, suggest measures, and recommend policy changes.”

The committee, comprising the Additional Secretary (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs), Principal Secretary (Home) Delhi, Special Commissioner of Delhi Police, Fire Advisor, and the Joint Secretary (MHA), will submit its report within 30 days.

On July 27 evening, three UPSC aspirants lost their lives after heavy rainfall led to waterlogging in the basement of a coaching institute in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area, which was being used illegally as a library.

The incident trapped 17 other students for several hours, highlighting the dire safety issues in these establishments.

The basement of the coaching centre was used as a library in violation of the rules since the space was allowed to be used only for parking and storage purposes.

(This story was taken from a syndicated feed and was only edited for style by Gujarat Samachar Digital staff)