The Supreme Court yesterday refused to stay a High Court verdict that directed the authorities concerned to pay Tk 20 lakh as compensation to the parents of Jihad, a four-year-old child who died falling down a 300-foot well shaft in Dhaka's Shahjahanpur in 2014.

The chamber judge of Appellate Division of the SC, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, however, sent a leave to appeal petition filed by the Fire Service and Civil Defense challenging the HC verdict to the full bench of the apex court.

The chamber judge also fixed February 5 next year for hearing the leave to appeal petition.

Following the SC chamber judge's order, the HC verdict, which directed that Bangladesh Railway and Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence will pay Tk 10 lakh each within 90 days to the parents of Jihad, will remain in force until further order of the SC, said Barrister Md Abdul Halim, who moved a writ petition before the HC in 2015 seeking compensation for the victim's family.

Barrister Halim told The Daily Star that Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence and the railway department have to pay Tk 10 lakh each to the parents of Jihad by January 22 next year as they have received the full text of the HC verdict on October 22 this year.

Jihad fell into an unprotected well shaft while playing with other children in Shahjahanpur Railway Colony on December 26, 2014. His body was pulled out by a group of volunteers the following day.

On February 26 this year, a Dhaka court sentenced four people, including three engineers of Bangladesh Railway, to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment over the death of Jihad.