Fire safety must stay in building code, says BIS panel | India News
The Deregulation Cell asked the BIS to develop various parts of the existing NBC, including the fire safety part, as handbooks and take them out of the code. This is the second instance when the Cabinet Secretariat has asked the BIS to change the rules. The latest was the withdrawal of notification regarding the revised seismic code.As part of the government’s deregulation drive, the deregulation cell under the Cabinet Secretariat has asked the BIS to drop sections like administration, development control rules and fire safety from the NBC and leave them to state governments and municipal authorities, as they are competent to frame these rules.However, the Technical Committee of BIS, in its last meeting, recommended the government to keep the “Fire and Life Safety” section in the NBC, which is being revised. “In deciding this, the committee also observed that from the recent events in the country and globally, it is clear that fire safety is an important aspect and buildings which are not maintained for planned/designed/planned purposes can become death traps; therefore as every life is precious, it should be dealt with carefully in the code,” the minutes of the meeting stated.The panel also recommended that it should be part of the “building code rather than a separate handbook”.The committee accepted several suggestions of the deregulation cell, including provisions for dividing a city into fire zones, removing height restrictions and relaxing sprinkler system requirements for all low-hazard and small-scale industries. “The committee has agreed to amend the provisions where the suggestion merits. But any erosion of fire safety norms should be avoided for public safety,” said a member of the panel.This is the second “direct instruction” to BIS from the Cabinet Secretariat’s deregulation cell which recently asked the standards body to withdraw its notification on seismic standards “immediately”, people aware of the development said.Some members of the committee said that when the draft NBC 2025 was ready for publication after more than two years of work by experts, the deregulation cell wrote to all states that the NBC was not mandatory to follow them. The letter dated June 25, 2025 said, “The NBC is not legally binding. It is a voluntary code for reference. It is not a ‘code’ in the legally binding sense…The subject of land and buildings is listed in Schedule-II (State List) of the Constitution.”..Therefore, buildings and matters like FAR/FSI, hazards, ground coverage, parking, green area, fire regulation etc., as well as other aspects covered in the NBC are within the exclusive legislative and executive jurisdiction of the States.”Karnataka Professional Civil Engineers Act — Steering Consortium President Ajit Kumar SM said, “Still, the NBC is voluntary in nature. So, the code can exist and states can change it. The government should not bulldoze a technical committee of experts that has been constituted by a statutory body.”
