HC says fire clearance norms for restaurants in Delhi moronic

Fire clearance norms of the AAP government for operating restaurants here were "moronic" and responsible for fire accidents, the Delhi High Court said Thursday.

The observation by Justice Vibhu Bakhru came after the court was told that according to the guidelines, a fire clearance was not granted by considering the capacity of a building where one or more restaurants may be located, but by taking into account the number of seats in each eatery.

Therefore, the court noted, if a building has a separate restaurant on each of its floors, none of them would need 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 (government) are looking at it (fire clearance) in the wrong way. You have to look at it building-wise," the court said.

The observation came while hearing the pleas by two restaurants, run from separate floors of a single building at Hauz Khas Village, challenging their sealing for lack of fire clearance.

While issuing notice to the Delhi government and other local authorities, seeking their stand in the matter, the court said: "Prima facie, fire clearance has to be looked at from the view of capacity of building as a whole and not restaurant-wise."