Plea in high court seeks action against hotels flouting norms

NEWDELHI:THE Delhi high court on Tuesday sought the response of the Delhi government and the three municipal authorities on a petition seeking immediate action against hotels or guest houses flouting fire safety and other norms in the wake of the recent fire at a Karol Bagh hotel.

A bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice V Kameswar Rao issued a notice to the authorities and asked them to file their reply by March 13, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing an application filed by advocate Arpit Bhargava, who sought action against officials for negligence, which led to the death of 17 lives at Hotel Arpit Palace. The petitioner also sought compensation for the families of the fire victims.

The plea wanted directions to the authorities to frame and implement a policy for the periodic inspection of all community halls, hotels and guest houses in Delhi to ensure such establishments comply with provisions of the law, especially fire safety and structural safety norms.

The plea was filed in a pending petition against the operation of illegal community or banquet halls. Referring to the fire that broke out at the high court on Saturday, the plea said rampant violations of the law by hotels and guest houses are putting at risk the safety of people.

“Some of them violate the law after obtaining fire safety and such other clearances and some violate the law even without obtaining fire safety and such other clearances,” the plea read.

It sought urgent remedial measures on a war footing to ensure no such incident is repeated and no human life is lost. “A thorough inquiry and investigation needs to be conducted in a time-bound manner for fixing accountability of officials of respondents, negligence of whom resulted in such a tragedy,” the plea said. The matter would be now heard on March 13.