The Supreme Court has linked unauthorised constructions to public safety risks in dense urban areas and warned civic bodies that slackness in enforcement will not be tolerated. The issue has immediate relevance for municipal governance, fire safety, and the right to life under Article 21.
What happened
The Bench referred to illegal building clusters in cramped localities of Delhi, Gurugram in Haryana, and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, and connected them to recent fatal fire incidents. It specifically cited a fire in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area on June 3 and another in Lucknow on June 22.
Senior advocate Ajit Sinha, acting as amicus curiae, placed details before the court. He described a narrow multi-storey building in a congested Delhi locality that functioned as a bed-and-breakfast with a restaurant on the ground floor. He stated that 23 people died and more than 50 people were rescued. For Lucknow, he described a fire in a multi-storey building in Aliganj that reportedly killed 15 people, many of them students.
Background and earlier position
The court expressed concern about non-compliance by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) with directions issued in 2024 and with further directions dated May 20. This shows that the issue is not a fresh enforcement problem alone, but part of an ongoing judicial monitoring exercise.
Related current affairs
- Treat waterlogging as disaster, work on war footing: L-G to officials
- Lucknow: ‘Unsanctioned’ portions of building where blaze killed 15 demolished
- How should cities reclaim footpaths?
- Woman, her two minor children die in blaze at Lodhi Colony residence
- (Photo caption) People gather as authorities carry out an anti-encroachment drive at a mosque in Jaipur on June 8
- Fire at EV charging point claims two lives in Noida