Nazia Amin
On May 27, incident of fire break down has been taken place in United Hospital located in the capital city where five admitted patients died being the victims. A writ petition has already been filed in the High Court Division for cancellation of hospital license for the act of negligence. Recently, one of the deceased victims’ family filed negligence case against the hospital under section 304A of The Penal Code, 1860.The family of the victim if become the judgement holder, will get compensation from the case. But more effective way to get adequate compensation is the filing of case of negligence under Tort Law.
Tort liability is not widely recognized in Bangladesh. Though there are several cases filed in the previous years under this law i.e, Jihad’s case, Bangladesh Beverage Industries Ltd vs. Rowsan Akhter 69 DLR 129, British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company Ltd vs. Begun Shamsun Nagar 66 DLR (AD) (2014) 80, tort law is still not developed in the country. In fact, most of the people dearth the knowledge about scope of filing tort cases. The recent incident of flame spread in United Hospital can be grasped as a way to promote tort liability in the country. Although the loss of the victim’s family cannot be gratified, they can at least get adequate compensation as justification. Countries like USA, Canada, India have adopted remedy under Tort Law for similar incident since many years. Now, it’s time for Bangladesh to develope such law as soon as possible.
The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Nazia Amin, Lawyer and Writer. Email: aminnazia@gmail.com
