The High Court (HC) has ordered that the families of four students killed in road accidents in Chattogram and Dhaka be given a compensation of Tk 100,000, to be paid within two weeks.
The court also issued a rule asking why the families should not be given compensation of Tk 500,000 each.
The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil gave the orders on Tuesday (Feb 5), after hearing a petition in the matter.
On Jan 16, a college student and on Jan 22 an eighth grader in Chattogram were killed in road crashes.
Meanwhile, in Dhaka’s Keraniganj two siblings were killed on Jan 28, also victims of a road accident.
Later Children Charity Bangladesh Foundation and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust lodged a writ with the HC.
Barrister Abdul Halim, who moved for the petition said that in addition to the compensation amount, the court also ordered that the reports of the cases, identitities of the deceased, identities of the drivers and transport owners be filed with the court.
The court issued a rule asking why the failure to train transport staffers to run the vehicles as per the existing law, not filing cases over the matter and not arresting the drivers should not be deemed illegal. In addition, the rule also asked why the victims’ families should not be given compensation of Tk 500,000 each.
A total of 14 people including the home secretary, road, transport and bridges secretary, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) chairman, inspector general of police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner and Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) commissioner have been made respondents to the rule.