The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee on sealing in Delhi has flagged widespread violations of the Capital’s Master Plan, building bye-laws and fire safety norms, warning that thousands of buildings operating as hotels, coaching centres, restaurants, nursing homes and banquet facilities have effectively become “unsafe buildings” that pose a serious threat to public safety.

In a 39-page report submitted to the Supreme Court, the three-member panel – comprising former Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority chairman Bhure Lal, major general Som Jhingon and former IAS officer Vijay Chhibber – cited the recent Hauz Rani hotel fire that killed 23 people as evidence of years of unchecked illegal construction and weak enforcement by civic agencies, according to a report by The Hindustan Times.

The panel made six broad recommendations. It called for a complete overhaul of Delhi’s mixed-use policy; a review of the Bed and Breakfast Establishments Act, 2007; a citywide survey to identify commercial activities operating from unsafe buildings; the withdrawal of MCD circulars permitting social functions in hotels, motels, farmhouses and unauthorised colonies; a random fire safety inspections even in buildings that have already received fire clearances; and the transfer of related cases to the Supreme Court bench already hearing unauthorised construction matters.

The panel — constituted by the apex court in 2006 to monitor unauthorised construction and revived in 2017 where it undertook sealing drives in areas such as Defence Colony, Sundar Nagar, Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar among other places — said it had repeatedly highlighted misuse of residential premises and violations of the Master Plan of Delhi-2021 (MPD-2021), but corrective action had remained inadequate.

“The recent unfortunate incidents… have shocked the nation to its core,” the committee said, adding that the death of foreign nationals in the Hauz Rani fire had also raised international concerns about fire safety standards in Delhi.

In its report, the panel has said that incidents such as the one in Hauz Rani have “shocked the nation to its core” and have “raised eyebrows at the international level on the lack of fire safety in public buildings in the national capital.”

A central concern raised in the report is that successive amendments to MPD-2021 have steadily expanded commercial activity within residential neighbourhoods without corresponding changes to building standards or fire safety requirements.

It referred to the definition of “unsafe buildings” under the Unified Building Bye-Laws (UBBL)-2016, which classifies structures as unsafe if they are structurally unsound, lack adequate means of egress, constitute fire hazards or are otherwise dangerous to human life. It argued that many commercial establishments currently operating in residential areas fall squarely within this category.

Among the most serious concerns highlighted is the operation of full-fledged hotels from residential buildings under the guise of bed-and-breakfast registrations or guesthouse permissions. The committee said many such establishments function without complying with fire safety norms applicable to hotels. It singled out Mahipalpur, where around 400 guesthouses and hotels operate, noting that despite repeated directions to authorities to identify and regulate such properties, “very little has been done”.

The report also flagged widespread violations by coaching centres, libraries, hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and banquet facilities functioning from both planned and unplanned colonies. It observed that coaching centres routinely exceed permissible occupancy limits prescribed under building regulations. While such institutions are permitted under MPD-2021 as mixed-use activities, they effectively function as educational buildings without adhering to the safety norms applicable to that category.

“It is a well-known fact that hardly any coaching centre is complying with the condition of maintaining the number of students to less than 20 at any given time,” the report noted, adding that these centres should comply with standards applicable to educational buildings.

Commercial activity on upper floors of markets

The committee also criticised authorities for allowing commercial activity on upper floors of markets such as Khan Market, Sunder Nagar, Defence Colony, Greater Kailash, South Extension, Green Park, Hauz Khas, Model Town and Rajinder Nagar without ensuring compliance with evacuation and fire safety requirements. It recommended that no additional permissions be granted in such areas until existing violations are rectified.

According to the report, busy commercial hubs such as Rajouri Garden Market and Lajpat Nagar Central Market have become “technically unsafe buildings” because commercial activities extend across all floors and basements of structures originally designed for residential use.