The Supreme Court of India said on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, that it would take up on September 10 a request for a time-bound safety audit of paying guest accommodations and private hostels around Delhi’s colleges, days after a five-story building housing a boys’ hostel collapsed near Delhi University’s South Campus on Sunday, September 6, killing seven students.
The building, a private boys’ paying guest hostel called Hostel Daze, came down at about 1:30 p.m. in a congested bylane in Satya Niketan, a South West Delhi locality packed with eateries and rented rooms catering to students. A rescue operation that ran for more than 27 hours concluded on Monday with seven students dead and five injured. Residents said 40 to 50 people could have been trapped under the debris.
A Sunday Afternoon in a Crowded Bylane
Delhi Fire Services received the call, and rescue teams reached the site around 1:50 p.m. Delhi Police joined them with fire tenders and ambulances. Students in the area formed human chains to keep crowds back so emergency personnel could reach ambulances, and summoned help through the quick-commerce platform Blinkit; a paramedic said close to 17 ambulances were at the spot.
The structure was 40 to 50 years old and measured roughly 55 square yards, with a basement and four floors above the ground floor, which housed a medical shop. It held about 15 rooms, each shared by two or three students, with beds renting for about Rs 12,000 (about $127); students in Satya Niketan say small double-sharing rooms cost Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 because many colleges have no hostels. Locals said the residents came from several states and studied at colleges around the South Campus. With no classes on Sunday, many were in their rooms, though an eyewitness said some had gone home for the weekend. Delhi had been lashed by incessant rain since Friday.
By Sunday evening, dozens of Delhi University students had converged on the AIIMS Trauma Center, photographs in hand, searching for friends who lived in and around the collapsed hostel.
Arrests, Suspensions and Demolitions
Delhi Police registered a case against the building’s owner, named in the first information report as Hariram, and others under sections 105, 290 and 125(a) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which cover culpable homicide not amounting to murder, negligent construction activity and acts endangering life or personal safety. The owner, his wife and their son have been arrested. Police said the owner is based in Gurugram. Five officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have been suspended, and the civic body began acting against illegal and unsafe structures in the area, flagging other buildings as dangerous as students moved out of nearby paying guest accommodations.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta ordered a magisterial inquiry and said an adjacent building had been evacuated as a precaution, leaving students to find shelter with friends. Motilal Nehru College canceled Monday’s classes and offered food and shelter to displaced students. The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) demanded an investigation. Hearing a public interest petition on Monday, the Delhi High Court ordered a high-level MCD inquiry, said the government could not evade responsibility and blamed such tragedies on inadequate measures by the MCD and other authorities.
Cause Still Under Investigation
In a status report to the Supreme Court, senior advocate Ajit Sinha, the amicus curiae appointed in a related case, said the precise cause and circumstances remain under investigation, though preliminary material indicates construction-related work was being carried out in or around the basement and that waterlogging in the basement was reported immediately before the collapse. A resident of more than two decades said many homes in the neighborhood had been converted into boys’ PGs by owners who moved elsewhere and collected rent online.
The collapse revived long-standing fears among students about the buildings they live in. Lokesh Kumawat, who is in his third year at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, said the structure had been deteriorating for years and that emergency responders were slow to arrive. “Everyone gives sympathy and forgets,” Kumawat said. Another building collapse in Satya Niketan in April 2022 killed two people and injured four.
What the Supreme Court Will Weigh
Sinha told the bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahdevan that he had inspected the site with a professor and MCD officials. He asked the court to let its committee inspect beyond the areas identified so far — Lajpat Nagar, Malviya Nagar and Saket — and to order a time-bound audit of student accommodations across Delhi, covering sanctioned building plans, the floors actually built, basement alterations, permissible land use, structural safety, fire compliance and exit routes.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, placed the High Court’s order on record. “Our heart goes out to the children and the parents,” Mehta said.
The court is already hearing a pan-India case on unauthorized construction in residential areas, fire safety and the conversion of homes into commercial premises in violation of norms, and it said it may transfer the case now to the High Court. “We have something in mind. We will consider this issue day-after-tomorrow. This is a serious issue,” the bench said. “The issues dealt with by the High Court are overlapping with one considered by this court on a pan-India basis.”
