The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has issued a stay order till August 16 on the previous High Court direction to give a total of Tk 1.20 crore to the families of four patients who were killed in a deadly fire at the corona unit of the United Hospital in Dhaka.
Appellate Division Chamber Justice Md Nuruzzaman passed the order on Tuesday.
Barrister Aneek R Haque, Barrister Muntasir Uddin Ahmed and others stood in favour of the writ while Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan stood for the United Hospital.
Earlier on 15 July, the High Court directed the United Hospital authorities to give Tk 30 lakh to each of the families of the four victims out of five who died in the May 27 fire which originated from an explosion of an air conditioner.
The court further ordered to pay the money in compensation to the victims' families in 15 days after receiving the copy of the HC order.
The virtual High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim passed the order on July 15 after hearing five separate writ petitions.
Earlier on June 29, the HC ordered both parties to come to an amicable settlement on compensation. Although the four families did not agree with the hospital's proposal about compensation, only one family of a victim, Monir Hossain, agreed with the 20 lakh compensation proposal.
On June 2, the High Court sought separate probe reports from four authorities concerned on the fire at the isolation unit of the United Hospital in the capital that killed five patients. The court then asked the hospital authorities to file a written statement within June 14.
Separately, the court also asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Fire Service and Civil Defence and Rajuk authorities to submit reports in this regard.
On June 15, a Fire Service and Civil Defence probe report submitted to the High Court said effective measures could have saved the lives of those patients.
The report also stated the negligence on the part of the hospital authorities in preventing and controlling the fire.
nh/teb
