Taking suo motu cognisance of Delhi coaching centre deaths, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government. The Supreme Court said coaching centres are "playing with lives of aspirants who have come from different parts of the country".
The top court called the incident an "eye opener" and said that no institute should be allowed to operate unless they comply with safety norms.
In Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar, a hub of UPSC training, three students of Rau's IAS Study Circle coaching centre died after the basement of the building housing the institute flooded due to gushing rainwater following rains on July 27.
"These places [coaching centres] have become death chambers. Coaching institutes can operate online unless there is full compliance of the safety norms and basic norms for a dignified life. Coaching centres are playing with the lives of aspirants who come from different parts of the country," the Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said.
Students enrolled in various coaching institutes have been protesting since the incident, demanding improved safety measures at coaching centres that pose a threat to their lives.
As the protest completed a week on Sunday, a number of students took out a candle march and sat in front of the coaching centre building to remember their friends who lost their lives.
The Delhi High Court had on Friday transferred the probe into the drowning of three civil services aspirants due to the flooding of the basement of the coaching centre from police to the CBI "to ensure the public has no doubt over the investigation".
The Delhi High Court rapped city police and municipal body over the drowning of three civil services aspirants and also over the arrest of an SUV driver not related to the mishap.
"Mercifully, you have not challaned rainwater for entering into basement, the way you arrested the SUV driver for driving his car there," the Delhi High Court said.
