India, June 5 -- Six years before the Hauz Rani incident, a similar fire at Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh claimed the lives of 17 people, had then prompted authorities to introduce strict rules governing hotels - one such provision required all floors above the third be demolished to get a fire permit - but these norms were rolled back three months later.

"The fire department cannot issue an NOC to any guest house or lodging facility that has more than four floors, does not have ventilation in each floor, corridor, passage or does not submit a blueprint of every floor to the department," read a May 2022 order.

But in September 2022, the government ordered that the fire department would no longer insist on demolition of the fourth flo...