Umamageswari Maruthappan
Telangana High Court has reserved its order on 25th February 2021 with respect to petitions that sought running of colleges in premises that had no “No Objection Certificate” (NOC) from fire services department.
68 colleges out of around more than 2000 colleges in Telangana do not have a fire NOC. Following this, the State Board of Intermediate Education ordered the closure of these colleges.
The present petition was filed by various educational institutions including those of Sri Chaitanya, Narayana and Gouthami. They challenged the order of the Board and stated that some of the buildings out of the listed 68 lacks a facility for allowing fire services vehicles as they were constructed long ago but however, water showers are being provided in case of fire.
Advocate Mohan Reddy, Counsel for petitioners, requested the Court to direct the State Board to form an inspection Committee and also sought time for installations of water showers.
Unsatisfied with the statements of the petitioners, the bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy commented that the petitions lack merits.“Students lives are more important than other things. The colleges have to be moved out of the present premises if it is not possible to fulfill the requirements specified by the board. The state government might have woken up after a deep slumber only after the court orders,” it observed.