In the wake of the September 6 building collapse in South Delhi’s Satya Niketan, the Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae has urged the top court to expand its ongoing inspection exercise to PG accommodations, private hostels, and similar student housing establishments across Delhi.
A local inquiry revealed that PG accommodation was operating from the ground-plus-four-storey building, where several students and other people were residing. The Amicus Curiae’s findings come after Delhi Police have registered an FIR in connection with the Satya Niketan building collapse that killed seven people, alleging that additional floors were constructed on the old structure despite concerns over its load-bearing capacity and that further construction work was underway. Some were trapped following the sudden collapse.
The amicus curiae and senior advocate, Ajit Kumar Sinha, has noted in his report that the Satya Niketan incident assumes significance as the locality had witnessed another building collapse in April 2022, in which two people were killed, and four others were injured. “The present incident is also required to be viewed in the context of an earlier building collapse in Satya Niketan in April 2022, in which two persons lost their lives and four others were injured. The incident occurred around 1 pm and police received information at around 1.34 pm, according to the FIR.
The recurrence of such an incident in the same locality raises serious concerns regarding the effectiveness of the existing mechanism for inspection, identification of dangerous structures and enforcement of building bye-laws”, the amicus report says. ASI Praful Toppo, the complainant, said police reached the spot and found the entire building collapsed, with several people gathered around the site.
The report noted that construction-related work was being undertaken in or around the basement and that there were reports of waterlogging in the basement immediately before the latest collapse.
