New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of the deaths of three civil services aspirants in the basement of a coaching centre here and sought responses from the Centre and the Delhi government.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said the recent incident in the national capital was an eye-opener for all.

"These places (coaching centres) have become death chambers. Coaching institutes can operate online unless there is full compliance of the safety norms and basic norms for a dignified life. Coaching centres are playing with the lives of aspirants who come from different parts of the country," the bench said.

On Friday, the Delhi High Court transferred the probe into the deaths of the three students at Rau's IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar from the city police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) "to ensure the public has no doubt over the investigation".

The three who died were Shreya Yadav (25) of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala