Where There Is Injury, There Must Be a Remedy: Dr Rajeshwar singh
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Time for India’s Own Law of Torts: Dr. Rajeshwar Singh
“India Has Modernised the Law That Punishes. Now We Must Modernise the Law That Heals.”: Dr. Rajeshwar Singh
Lucknow: Dr. Rajeshwar Singh, MLA from Sarojininagar, has written to Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Law and Justice, urging the Government to introduce a comprehensive law of torts, the “Bharatiya Civil Wrongs and Compensation Code,” to ensure that every citizen harmed by negligence receives timely and fair compensation.
The key points of the letter are:
The next step after the new criminal laws:
After replacing the colonial criminal laws with the BNS, BNSS and BSA, India must now reform the civil law governing compensation for victims. Punishing the wrongdoer is not enough; the life of the person wronged must also be restored.
Seventy years of unfinished business:
The First Law Commission recommended legislation on State liability in its very first report in 1956. Bills introduced in 1965 and 1967 lapsed, and India still has no comprehensive law on civil wrongs. Claims arising from wrongful death continue to be governed by the colonial-era Fatal Accidents Act, 1855.
Victims left without an effective remedy:
India recorded over 4.8 lakh road accidents and 1.72 lakh deaths in 2023, yet road agencies and contractors are rarely made to pay for potholes, open drains or faulty design. Of about ₹20,000 crore lost to cyber fraud up to November 2025, only about ₹8,000 crore has been saved or frozen. Victims of data breaches also have no clear statutory right to compensation.
The world has done it:
The UK, USA, Germany, France, Japan and China have established legal frameworks providing for liability for harm caused by the State and private actors. The European Union has also introduced liability rules covering AI systems and software as products.
Relief for the common citizen:
The proposed Code would give victims clear answers to five questions: whom to claim against, where to claim, within what time, for how much, and what interim relief is available. It would cover medical negligence, defective roads and buildings, industrial disasters, deepfakes, data breaches and police excesses.
A more accountable bureaucracy:
Departments would be required to respond to claims within a fixed time. Honest officers would be protected, while compensation could be recovered from officials acting in bad faith or with gross negligence, in line with established judicial principles, including the Supreme Court’s judgment in LDA v. M.K. Gupta. Departments would also publish annual data on claims to help address recurring failures.
Safeguards and the way forward:
The proposal includes safeguards against frivolous claims, protection for good-faith decisions, affordable online adjudication and mediation before litigation. Dr. Singh has requested that the matter be referred to the Law Commission of India for a time-bound report, followed by an expert committee and nationwide consultation.
“Where there is injury, justice must mean more than a judgment; it must mean restoration,” said Dr. Singh.