Conduct Structural Audit Of Hospital, School Buildings To Check Stability During Earthquakes: Delhi High Court To Authorities

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the city authorities to conduct a structural audit of buildings of all hospitals, schools and colleges in the national capital to check their stability during earthquakes.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna directed the authorities to file status reports on the aspect.

The court was dealing with a PIL filed by a lawyer, Advocate Arpit Bhargava, claiming that the seismic stability of buildings in the city was poor and that there can be a large number of casualties if there is a major earthquake.

The court ordered that the structural audit of the buildings be done by the authorities within three weeks and listed the matter for hearing on May 06.

During the hearing, Delhi Government's counsel submitted that plan of action has been prepared to deal with earthquakes which is being followed by the city authorities.

He further said that making all the buildings in Delhi seismic activity proof can only be done in a phased manner.

On the other hand, the counsel representing Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said that the civic body was taking action against unauthorised construction activities in the city. 

It was also submitted that the MCD was considering the option of retrofitting in the buildings to make them compliant with safety norms. 
The counsel appearing for Delhi Development Authority (DDA) submitted that over 300 of its buildings were now compliant with the safety norms.

The PIL was filed by Bhargava in 2015. Various orders have been passed since then directing the authorities to come up with an action plan to deal with earthquakes.

A contempt petition was later filed by Bhargava in the year 2020, alleging non compliance of the judicial orders by the authorities.

It was his case that the court's orders directing the authorities to make the city ready to face any major earthquake have not been complied with.


Title: Arpit Bhargava and Anr. v. Vijay Kumar Dev & Ors.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1232