DHAKA: The High Court has directed the hospitals and the clinics not to hold the dead body confined in their hospitals even if the family of the deceased fail to pay the due bills.

The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan issued the directive on Monday (November 20) following a writ petition filed by Advocate Manzill Murshid.

The High Court directed the hospitals and the clinics to release the dead body of poor and destitute people if their family cannot pay the treatment bill.

The court also asked the health and family welfare ministry to issue a circular in this regard. The health secretary and the director general of the Department of Health Services will issue the circular containing the directive for all the hospitals and clinics in the country. They will also create a fund for paying the unpaid treatment bills of the poor people, according to the HC order.

In June in 2012, Advocate Manzill Murshid filed the writ petition with the High Court on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.

He had filed the petition following a report published in a Bengali daily on June 08 in 2012 that reported that the City Hospital in Dhaka did not hand over the body of a newborn child to its parents as they could not pay the full bill of the treatment.

Then the High Court fined the City Hospital authorities Tk 5,000 and directed to give the amount to the Anzuman Mofidul Islam.

BDST: 1525 HRS, NOV 20, 2017
EHJ