Government - negligence - vicarious liability - immunity

The government must pay for the negligence of its officers and it cannot claim "sovereign immunity" like in the old days, the Supreme Court has stated while imposing compensation on the authorities who failed to register three fishing vessels, causing loss to owners. The vessels were bought by Sancheta Food Products in an auction. They had to be registered under the Merchant Shipping Act for taking them to the high seas for fishing. However, the officers were taking contrary stands regarding the rules applicable to the vessels, causing heavy loss to the firm. It sued the government in the Calcutta high court. It imposed compensation on the government for its "contradictory and dilatory" stands. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court judgment. It elaborated on the "vicarious liability" of the state for the actions of its officers and diluted the immunity of the government in negligence cases. Citing earlier decisions rejecting the claim of immunity of the government, the present judgment reiterated that "no legal or political system today can place the state above law as it is unjust and unfair for a citizen to be deprived of his property illegally by negligent act of officers without any remedy…The modern social thinking of progressive societies and the judicial approach is to do away with archaic state protection and place the government on a par with any other juristic legal entity." The court also rejected the government's plea that it has taken action against the officer concerned. The liability of the government did not end with action against its officers, the judgment emphasised.