NEW DELHI: Delhi high court on Thursday lamented over the “moronic” fire clearance norms applied by the government for restaurants and eateries, saying no wonder “fire accidents happen.”
HC’s remarks came while examining the fire clearance guidelines on the basis of which government’s fire department evaluates if an NOC should to be granted to a restaurant or not.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru took note of the norms for granting the clearance the department and municipal corporations go by the number of seats present in each eatery, but don’t study the capacity of a building where one or more restaurants may be located.
HC pointed out that the guidelines followed by the department reveals that if a building has a separate restaurant on each floor, none of them would need the fire clearance as long as their individual seating was below 50.
“It is moronic, for want of a better word. No wonder fire accidents happen. You are looking at it (fire clearance) in the wrong way. You have to look at it building-wise,” the court advised the agencies.
HC was hearing the petitions by two eateries operating from separate floors of a single building at Hauz Khas Village, challenging their sealing for lack of fire clearance.
While issuing notice to Delhi government and other local authorities and seeking their stand in the matter, the court said, “Prima facie, fire clearance has to be looked at from the view of the capacity of the building as a whole and not restaurant-wise.”
It added that four restaurants with individual seating of 48 each or total 192, being run on four different floors of a building are as much a hazard as one single restaurant with 192 seating operating out of several floors of one building.
The petitioners, however, agreed to keep one of the restaurants closed till requisite clearances were received, and sought permission to run the other at a reduced capacity.
Taking note of the submission, the court asked the eatery owner to move an application before the agency concerned indicating that it would keep one restaurant closed and run the other at a reduced capacity so that the authority can immediately take a decision if it wants to allow running of one of the eateries at limited capacity as long as it conforms to all the guidelines.
With the directions, the court listed the matter for hearing on August 26.
HC’s remarks came while examining the fire clearance guidelines on the basis of which government’s fire department evaluates if an NOC should to be granted to a restaurant or not.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru took note of the norms for granting the clearance the department and municipal corporations go by the number of seats present in each eatery, but don’t study the capacity of a building where one or more restaurants may be located.
HC pointed out that the guidelines followed by the department reveals that if a building has a separate restaurant on each floor, none of them would need the fire clearance as long as their individual seating was below 50.
“It is moronic, for want of a better word. No wonder fire accidents happen. You are looking at it (fire clearance) in the wrong way. You have to look at it building-wise,” the court advised the agencies.
HC was hearing the petitions by two eateries operating from separate floors of a single building at Hauz Khas Village, challenging their sealing for lack of fire clearance.
While issuing notice to Delhi government and other local authorities and seeking their stand in the matter, the court said, “Prima facie, fire clearance has to be looked at from the view of the capacity of the building as a whole and not restaurant-wise.”
It added that four restaurants with individual seating of 48 each or total 192, being run on four different floors of a building are as much a hazard as one single restaurant with 192 seating operating out of several floors of one building.
The petitioners, however, agreed to keep one of the restaurants closed till requisite clearances were received, and sought permission to run the other at a reduced capacity.
Taking note of the submission, the court asked the eatery owner to move an application before the agency concerned indicating that it would keep one restaurant closed and run the other at a reduced capacity so that the authority can immediately take a decision if it wants to allow running of one of the eateries at limited capacity as long as it conforms to all the guidelines.
With the directions, the court listed the matter for hearing on August 26.
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