SC asks govt to file leave to appeal against HC verdict for compensating family

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the government to file a leave to appeal petition with this court in two weeks against a High Court verdict that ordered it to compensate the family of Jihad, a four-year-old boy who died falling down a 300-foot unprotected well shaft in the capital's Shahjahanpur Railway Colony on December 26, 2014.

The government has to file the leave to appeal petition if it receives the certified copy of the HC verdict, the apex court said.

Chamber judge of the Appellate Division of the SC Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after hearing a government petition seeking a stay on the HC verdict.

The SC also adjourned hearing of the stay petition for two weeks. 

Jihad's body was pulled out by a group of volunteers the following day, shortly after the government agencies called off the rescue bid, saying there was no sign of the boy inside the well.

Following a writ petition filed by Children's Charity Bangladesh Foundation, the HC on February 18 this year ruled that the government would have to compensate Jihad's family and said in its full verdict, the court would fix the amount and say who should pay it.

Petitioner's counsel Abdul Halim told The Daily Star that the HC verdict would remain in force until the SC stays it.

The government can move the stay petition before the SC chamber judge if it will not get the certified copy of the HC verdict in two weeks, he added.