When will you move out from residential area, HC asks coaching centres

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked coaching centres for competitive examinations, running illegally in a residential areas such as Mukherjee Nagar in north Delhi, to inform it of the time they required to move out to other places.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Chief Justice Gita Mittal and AC. Hari Shankar said: "File affidavit that you (coaching centres) would move out and when will you move out."

Hearing a bunch of pleas against the proliferation of coaching centres in a residential area here, the bench said people don't think of public convenience but of profit-making.

"Run a tutorial class. Take just 20 students. It's a very selfish stand that we take. The city is bursting out," said the bench slamming the coaching centre owners for converting a residential area to a commercial zone.

"What kind of education and value you are teaching to students by running coaching centres in residential area?" asked the bench and even suggested to move out to outer Delhi or the NCR, where there is more industrial area).

"This concept of having clinic next to my house and bank in front of my house has to go," the court added.

Advocate Sameer Mendiratta, appearing for one of the petitioner, told the court that in each building, every floor has at least 100 students and if a fire broke out, how would these students come out?

The pleas told the court that Mukherjee Nagar area was converted from residential to commercial zone in connivance with the authorities for running coaching institutes.

The authorities gave full protection to the illegal and unlawful activities carried out by the property owners, said the pleas.

All these premises housed professional institutions, coaching classes or academic institutions training students for competitive examination, said the petitions and accused Delhi Jal Board and North Delhi Power Ltd for colluding with inhabitants of the area by "flouting and ignoring terms and conditions" and in "fundamental breach of leasehold policy".

They were accused of "converting the residential land" for "commercial purposes by installing water and electricity supply at premises" and having "created traffic jams" in the area, they added.

The plea also asked the government to ensure that no professional institutions operated in the residential area.

--IANS

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