Seven people, five of them students, were killed when a five-story building housing a boys’ hostel collapsed near Delhi University’s South Campus on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Two days after the disaster, the Supreme Court of India said it would take up a request for a time-bound safety audit of paying guest accommodations and private hostels around Delhi’s colleges, and it heard the matter on September 10.

The bench hearing the matter, Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahadevan, said the same day that it was mooting an examination of building safety issues on a pan-India basis and would consider transferring the Satya Niketan case from the Delhi High Court to itself. At the hearing on September 10, the court left the case with the High Court, asking it to monitor the matter at short intervals while the Supreme Court held oversight through compliance reports. The bench directed authorities to file affidavits on compliance with its earlier orders of March 25 and August 5, and set the next hearing for September 15.

Hostel Daze, the private boys’ paying guest hostel that came down at about 1:30 p.m., sat in a congested bylane in Satya Niketan, a South West Delhi locality packed with eateries and rented rooms catering to students. Rescuers worked for more than 27 hours before the operation ended on Monday, with teams withdrawing at about 5:10 p.m. The students who died were Abhishek, 20, of Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh; Yuvraj Soni, 20, of Durg, Chhattisgarh; Pawan, 17, of Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh; Arpit Jahaj, 19, of Dewas, Madhya Pradesh; and Akshat Singh Yadav, 18, of Katni, Madhya Pradesh. Surinder Singh, 75, a laborer, also died. Police identified six victims; the seventh has not been identified. Another five people were injured, three of them critically. Residents said 40 to 50 people could have been trapped under the debris.

A Sunday Afternoon in a Crowded Bylane

The call reached Delhi Fire Services at about 1:34 p.m., and fire tenders, police and National Disaster Response Force teams were sent to the site. Rescuers pulled 12 people from the debris, seven of whom died during treatment, a police official said. Police, fire service crews and civil defence volunteers cleared rubble by hand and by machine through the night, and the operation was declared complete on Monday evening.

Renovation in the Basement

Renovation work in the basement triggered the collapse, Abhimanyu Poswal, deputy commissioner of police for South Delhi, said. Police said the basement repairs had been under way for eight to 10 days, amid water that had pooled after heavy rain across Delhi and the National Capital Region. The building was about 50 years old and held 15 rooms let to two or three students each, with a medical shop on the ground floor, on a plot of roughly 55 square yards.

Three members of the owner’s family — Hariram Gupta, his wife, Urmila, and their son Mahesh — have been arrested. Hariram was picked up in Bhiwadi after Delhi Police issued a lookout notice against him. Mahesh told investigators he handled maintenance for his parents, police said. A labour contractor, Sanoj, of Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh, was detained for questioning about the construction and repair work.

The Courts Step In

The Delhi High Court agreed to hear a public interest petition seeking accountability for the collapse on an urgent basis, and has held Delhi University and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi responsible alongside the building’s owners.

On Thursday, September 10, the Supreme Court declined to take the case away from the High Court, with Justices Amanullah and Mahadevan saying they did not want to disturb a process in which “things have started moving.” The High Court will keep monitoring compliance with its directions at short intervals, and the Supreme Court asked authorities to file a separate compliance report with it on the wider question of unsafe and unauthorized student housing.