Supreme Court exempts buildings up to 17. 5m from Delhi fire rules

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday exempted buildings up to 17.5 metre tall with stilts from Rule 27 of the Delhi Fire Service Rules 2010, which categorises any building above 15 metre height as high-rise and allowed a plea of Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh who has been fighting a legal battle for the last eight years for getting approval for his house which is around 16 metre.

A bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice V Ramasubramanian said the 15-metre limit would apply to buildings without stilts, while buildings with stilts can be as tall as 17.5 metre, and any building above 17.5 metre would come in the category of high rise.

Petitioner first moved HC in 2014 for easing norms

The Supreme Court on Thursday exempted buildings up to 17.5 metre tall with stilts from Rule 27 of the Delhi Fire Service Rules 2010. Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh, submitted that Rule 27(2) of the Delhi Fire Service Rules, 2010 was not in consonance with 2013 amendment in Master Plan for Delhi (MPD)-2021, whereby the maximum height for residential buildings with stilt parking has been increased to 17.5 metre from the erstwhile limit of 15 metre.

Singh had first approached the Delhi high court in March 2014 seeking its direction to South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to approve the revised plan of construction of his house in Defence Colony. The house had breached the 15 metre height and was around 16 metre. He had contended that as per amended MPD-2021, the definition of High Rise Buildings had been changed to “Buildings taller than 15 metre (without stilt) and 17.5 metre (including stilt) and further providing that in case of stack-parking in stilt floor, minimum height of 2.4 metre for stilt floor may be relaxed.

The HC, however, was not convinced and turned down his plea, and had in January 2016 said “we are of the view that if the petitioner satisfies the SDMC that the construction of his house/building is otherwise in consonance with the sanctioned plans and the petitioner has taken sufficient measures for fire safety and/or takes such further measures to notwithstanding the increased height make his house/building fire safe, the construction does not remain unauthorised. This however would be subject to the condition that the petitioner, in the unlikely event of fire in his house, shall not make any complaint vis-a-vis the remedial/curative measure taken by the DFS(Delhi Fire Services)”.