Wednesday | 15 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Wednesday | 15 January 2025 | Epaper

Necessity of introducing Tort Law in Bangladesh

Published : Sunday, 22 December, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 498
Mayesha Farzana Islam
Tort Law is a branch of civil law that addresses civil wrongs by providing remedies of monetary compensations to individuals who faces harms because of another's action. This branch of law is very famous as an efficacious remedy in the western but unfortunately has not much developed in our legal system. There is no codified act of tort in Bangladesh though there are some provisions in other laws which nature is tort. For examples Penal Code 1860, The Fatal Accidents Act, 1855, Code of Civil Procedure,1908 provisions that have tort functions but that are not sufficient. 

Tort law governs a wide range of civil wrong such as negligence, vicarious liability, nuisance, defamation, assault, economic torts and others.Vicarious liability means one party is responsible for the wrongful acts of another person typically refers a relationship where one person has authority over the other.For example, a real estate company agent misrepresents property detail to a buyer while working then the company held liable and need to provide monetary compensation for the damage. Enforcing this would make business owners are more careful about who they hire and how they train them for safer workplaces for everyone. 

Another critical area is nuisance, which involves actions that disturb others' enjoyment of their property. Think about a person plays frequently loud music at late night which disturbs sleeps of neighbours and create sound pollution. This action creates problem for the neighbour ability to enjoy their homes, stress and discomfort. The neighbour can sue for injunction to stop this nuisanceandclaim monetary compensation for the going through stress and other problems.  

Defamation, or harming someone's reputation through false statements is another tort principle. If someone defame an individual or organization, the tort lawreduces the damage by providing monetary compensating. Then there is negligence, where someone fails to exercise proper care, often leading to accidents or injuries. For example, a patient comes to a doctor with chest pain and breathing problem where tests were serious necessary but the doctor consider it as anxiety problem without conducting tests and prescribe some wrong medicines. One day latter, the patient had a heart attack because of the negligence of doctor. It can be filed asuitagainst the doctor and claim compensation.

“Tort law governs a wide range of civil wrong such as negligence, vicarious liability, nuisance, defamation, assault, economic torts and others.Vicarious liability means one party is responsible for the wrongful acts of another person typically refers a relationship where one person has authority over the other.For example, a real estate company agent misrepresents property detail to a buyer while working then the company held liable and need to provide monetary compensation for the damage”

In many countries tort law is active in the court room but in our country we have not much judgements on this matter.A case namedCatherine Masud v. Md Kashed Miah and others which talk about tort.In this case,Tareque Masuda film-maker along with others started his journey from Dhaka for visiting a shooting site at Saljana village of Shibalaya Upazila under Manikganj district through a microbus. At that time, a passenger buswas coming from the opposite direction at a high speed which was carrying passengers.The Bus took the wrong lane and caused made an accident with the Microbus. 

There are five persons died instantly in this incident. Latter Catherine Masud filed a case, and the court said on its decision that the owners would be held vicariously liable because they were aware that the bus lacked the certificate of fitness. Also, the court gives decision to provide huge amount of money to compensate the defendants. Apart from this British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company Ltd v Begum Shamsun Nahar, CCB Foundation v. Government of Bangladesh and some other cases are related to tort but these are not sufficient number of cases in the judiciaryto make huge concern among people about tort law. This law has power that can drive social change and for that it needs to have codified act where tort offences are clearly explained. Ordinary people can go to the court by referring the tort act and it will be easy for the courts to provide remedy as much as possible through judgements on tort law. 

Enforcing tort law in Bangladesh can bring significant benefits, especially in a society where accountability is often overlooked. It ensures that people and organisations are held responsible for their actions when they harm others. Whether it is a negligent driver, a careless manufacturer, or a polluting factory, tort law forces them to compensate victims. Also, application of tort law makes safer workplaces, producing quality goods as offenders knows that they could face legal consequences of paying huge amount of compensation in case of their negligence. Apart from them tort law empowers ordinary people because it gives victims a way to demand compensation and stand up against powerful big companies or government bodies, when they suffered harm. Altogether, it is high time to introduce comprehensive tort act to protect individual civil rights, liabilities and promoting accountability among people in the society.

The write is an LL.B student, Department of Law, World University of Bangladesh


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