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Court was dealing with a batch of petitions concerning the operations of coaching centres in Mukherjee Nagar, a coaching hub for government job aspirants
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to close down all coaching centres operating without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire services department.
The division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Saurabh Banerjee observed that "fire safety is a must" and all coaching centres are under an obligation to comply with their statutory requirements under the Delhi Master Plan, 2021, and other applicable regulations.
The court was dealing with a batch of petitions concerning the operations of coaching centres in Mukherjee Nagar, a coaching hub for government job aspirants. The court was also hearing a suo moto plea after a June 15 blaze at a coaching centre in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar which resulted in the injury of 61 students.
“The Master Plan-2021 provides for registration of mixed land use upon charges. Undisputedly, the registration has to be done by MCD, subject to fulfilment of condition as enumerated under clause 15.7.3 of the MPD…In the considered opinion of this court, if a coaching centre is not conforming to the norms as per the MPD, it has to be shut down. There is no other alternative. Resultantly the respondents are directed to close down all coaching centres which do not have fire No-Objection Certificate (NOC),” the court remarked orally.
“It is needless to mention that in respect of other commercial activities which are also going on in Mukherjee Nagar and registration has been granted by the MCD for mixed-use premises, the MCD will scrutinise all such other registrations to ensure compliance of the norms under MPD and take appropriate actions against them if they are non-conforming with the MPD,” it said.
While directing all authorities, including the Delhi government, police, and the fire department to provide logistical support to the MCD to shut non-conforming institutes, the court said that the civic body shall be free to cancel the registration as they are not fulfilling the requisite norms.
“There should not be a coaching centre contrary to the MPD-2021 and all the coaching centres are under the obligation to comply with MPD,” the court said.
The matter will be further heard on October 10.
Case Title: Kanchan Gupta v. Lt. Governor, State of Delhi & Ors (a batch of petitions)
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