The Road Transport Act 2018 requires the creation of such a fund
The High Court on Monday issued a rule asking why it should not direct to create a financial assistance fund under a board of trustees, from which payments towards compensation packages and medical costs of casualties in road crashes could be made.
The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order to implement Section 53 and 54 of the Road Transport Act 2018 during a virtual hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard.
The secretaries to the Road Transport and Highways, Law, and Finance divisions, senior secretary to the Security Service Division of the Home Ministry, and the chairman of BRTA were made respondents to the rule and asked to respond within four weeks.
Advocate Manoj Kumar Bhowmik represented the petitioner during the hearing, while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for the state.
On August 17, five lawyers of the Supreme Court, including Manoj Kumar, sent a legal notice to the defendants to take steps for implementing the RTA in full.
Receiving no reply, they filed a writ petition at the High Court challenging the inactivity of the authorities on Sunday.
Advocate Manoj Kumar said a fund and a trustee board were supposed to be formed to compensate those who were injured in road accidents and the families of deceased road accident victims, according to the act.
In the three years since the passage of the act in parliament, large sections of it have clearly been neglected. The lack of any steps to create the compensation fund is evidence of this, he said.
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