Coaching centre deaths: Delhi HC pulls up authorities, slams freebies culture

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said a 'strange probe' was going on with police action against the passerby who drove a car but no action against MCD officials.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up authorities over the deaths of three UPSC aspirants who drowned in the basement of a coaching centre, saying such tragedies are bound to happen when there is no collection of taxes due to a "freebies culture".

The high court hinted at asking a central agency to probe the incident and directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner, deputy commissioner of police concerned and the investigating officer of the case to appear before it on Friday.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said a "strange probe" was going on with Delhi Police taking action against a man who drove a car outside the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar here but not acting against MCD officials.

"Have they lost it? What is Delhi Police doing? What are its officials doing? This is a cover up or what? Has some official been held accountable for the incident till now? We are telling you, once the responsibility is fixed on officials, no such incident will ever happen in future," the bench said.

It also directed the authorities to remove all encroachments on drains in the Rajinder Nagar area by Friday.

"This is such a serious incident. There is infrastructure failure in the city at a large scale," the bench said, adding that the situation is absolutely chaotic at the ground level and wondered if these civic authorities even exist at the ground level.

The court said the construction of multi-storey buildings was being allowed but there was no proper drainage.

"Your authorities are bankrupt. If you don't have money to pay salaries, how will you upgrade the infrastructure? There is a need to revamp the infrastructure. You want to have freebies culture, you don't want to collect taxes. You are not collecting any money, so you are not spending any money... the tragedy was bound to happen," the bench said.

The court was hearing a plea seeking the constitution of a high-level committee to investigate the deaths of the three civil service aspirants on the evening of July 27.

The court was also hearing a plea related to hundreds of libraries running in basements in the city.

During the hearing, the bench remarked that people hold protests and agitations saying there is no water in Delhi and the city is not receiving its share of water but there are floods the next day.

"You need to see whether you want to have this freebies culture or you want to have proper infrastructure. Delhi has a population of 3.3 crore people whereas it was planned for 6-7 lakh people. How do you plan to accommodate so many people without upgrading the infrastructure? There is malice in the system. Administrators should pay attention to this," it said.

The high court also arrayed Delhi Police as a party to the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on August 2.