PIL in Supreme Court seeks policy to regulate coaching institutes 

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]N the aftermath of recent Surat fire tragedy in a coaching institute which claimed the lives of 22 students, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed by an advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak in the Supreme Court for issuing directions, orders or to frame a policy to regulate these bodies.

In his plea, Pathak pointed out that while private coaching institutes were being established at an alarming rate, there were no building bye-laws or local safety laws that governed these institutes where students were housed in violation of their fundamental rights.

“The coaching classes seem to be running a parallel education system … but the issue is that these organizations are not governed or regularized by the states through law or any statute except few states like Bihar. If regularized by the government, they will have to fall in line as far as certain basic facilities, fees charged and faculty enlisted are concerned,” the petitioner said.

Pathak also claimed that coaching institutes came under the purview of “state” as defined under Article 12 of the Constitution of India as these organizations and institutes used the resources of the state to perform a public duty. Strict action should, therefore, be initiated against them for violating local building bye-laws and safety norms, he said in his public interest petition.