Authorities are “playing with the lives of citizens” by not enforcing fire safety measures in restaurants operating in Delhi’s posh Khan Market, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, while observing that court orders impacting the rich do not get implemented.
“Where it relates to the poor people, orders are implemented and where it relates to the rich people, they are not implemented. This is not fair,” said a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur, Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta.
The Bench made this observation while hearing a matter related to sealing of unauthorised constructions in the Capital. During the hearing, the Bench asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, to find out from Special Task Force (STF) as to what they were doing about Khan Market.
The STF was constituted in April following the apex court’s order to oversee enforcement of laws on illegal construction and monitor removal of encroachments.
Mr. Nadkarni said there were two aspects about Khan market — one related to encroachment there and other about fire safety. He said the authorities are awaiting guidelines on the fire safety aspect.
The Bench observed that restaurants having sitting capacity of over 50 needed fire clearance and there was a tendency to keep the official capacity below 50 to avoid the need for this clearance.
“Do you want a repeat of what had happened in Mumbai? This is playing with the lives of citizens. God forbid if something happens there, what will you do...There is a different law for rich and different law for poor,” the Bench said.