New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the central and city governments over the death of three students in a flood at a coaching centre which was illegally operating at a basement in Delhi's Rajinder Nagar area, media reports said.

Coming down heavily on the authorities for failing to regulate the coaching centres, the top court accused them of "playing with the lives of children", NDTV reported.

Coaching centres have become "death chambers", said the court.

Seven people including Abhishek Gupta and Deshpal Singh, the owner and the coordinator of the IAS coaching centre respectively, have been arrested.

The Rau's IAS Study Circle centre had been using the basement as a library despite civic authorities stating clearly that it should be used for storage or parking.

The Rau's IAS Study Circle centre in Rajinder Nagar received a No-Objection Certificate from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in August 2021. This certificate specifies that the basement is intended for parking and household storage, reported NDTV.

The coaching centre obtained an NOC from the fire department earlier this month, which was also accessed by NDTV.

This document indicates that the building meets fire safety requirements and states that the basement should be used strictly according to building bye-laws.

The building bye-laws stipulate that measures must be in place to prevent surface water from entering the basement.

They also require sufficient exit and access points if the basement is used for office or commercial purposes.

In the case of the Rajinder Nagar coaching centre, however, there was only one entry/exit, the report said.

The incident, which resulted in the deaths of three civil service aspirants—Tania Soni and Shreya Yadav, both 25, and Navin Delvin, 28—occurred after heavy rainfall in Delhi flooded the basement.

Several students were in the library at the time.