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Synopsis

An Advocate and Social Activist, recently, approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Chief Secretary of the Delhi Government to conduct regular, comprehensive fire safety audits, ensure adequate fire fighting systems, address insufficient electric load capacity, and enforce mandatory provisions for various coaching institutes, small hospitals, and nursing homes in Delhi, in the public interest.

The plea, filed through Advocate N. Pardeep Sharma, is listed before the bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora on May 31, 2024. 

The plea highlighted that recent incidents, including numerous fire breakouts, have resulted in significant loss of lives and property. ‘In the past few days, it is apparent that there have been numerous accidents occurring like fire breakouts, which are causing a great loss of lives, including those of innocent children and loss of property, as the requisite disaster management operating mechanisms, fire-norms, building bye-laws and other requisite norms & guidelines are missing from these premises, against the regulatory guidelines’, the plea stated. 

The petition was filed after the advocate encountered multiple articles in various newspapers suggesting that, despite sufficient machinery, the Government of NCT of Delhi failed to control the proliferation of coaching institutes, homes, and small hospitals operating without proper facilities and in violation of mandatory laws.

The petitioner referred to recent news items broadcasted on various channels and published in articles such as 'Disaster Officials Asked for Fire Risk Audit Last Week,' 'With NICUs Too Costly for Many, Are Smaller Clinics Necessary Evil?' and 'LG, Govt. Order Inquiry Into Blaze,' published in the Hindustan Times on May 27, 2024.

The petitioner emphasized the statutory laws that clinics and hospitals must comply with, including the Clinical Establishments Act, pollution control norms, fire safety norms, and various central and state-specific labor laws. 

Furthermore, the petitioner's contention is that such laws include obtaining approvals for infrastructure, clinical registration, pollution control consents, and medical professionals' and employees' registrations. The plea stated, ‘No one should be allowed to play with the innocent lives for their own benefit… Authorities are duty bound to see that the laws are implemented in full’. 

Case Title: Shweta v Government of NCT of Delhi (WP(C) No. 8415/2024)