Unlicensed banquet halls: Delhi high court slams corporations

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court on Thursday lashed out at the municipal corporations over their failure to check unlicensed banquet halls from operating and sought a list of such outlets against which notices have been issued.
“What action have you (corporations) taken? Have you issued notices to them (halls) to install fire safety measures? Have they done anything? If not, you should have closed them down. At least one or two should have closed down,” remarked a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar, while hearing a matter raising lack of fire safety regulations that led to the Arpit Hotel fire tragedy earlier this year.
The court noted that despite HC’s several orders seeking details of banquet/community halls which were running without licences and fire safety norms, neither the corporations nor the Delhi government have come clear on what action was taken and how many were booked.
“Why are you hesitating in giving all this,” the bench asked, saying as a “last chance” it will grant two months’ time to the three corporations and the Delhi government to furnish a list of all such halls running without licences and fire safety measures. The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Arpit Bhargava seeking immediate action against hotels or guesthouses flouting fire safety and other norms and the next hearing will take place on October 14.
The court made it clear that by the next date of hearing it expects the corporations to slap notices on the errant halls to put in fire safety measures and to apply for licences, adding that if the owners of such properties do not respond to the notices or do not make the changes, then some of them can be shut down to send the message that violations would not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, in a separate hearing the same bench pulled up the AAP government wondering if it was “waiting for a tragedy to hit” before acting against schools which have inadequate fire safety measures.