[Bangla Daily Star] The High Court yesterday upheld Bangladesh Bank's "removal" of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from the post of Grameen Bank's managing director.The boodle is now officially up for grabs.
He will appeal against the verdict with the Supreme Court, his lawyers said.
An HC bench summarily rejected two writ petitions filed challenging the legality of the central bank's order.
Delivering the verdict, the court said the microcredit pioneer's posting as the MD of Grameen Bank since 1999 was illegal as he reached the age of 60 by then.
The MD of Grameen Bank is an official who cannot hold the office for an unlimited period, it added.
The board of directors of Grameen Bank is the authority to appoint its MD with approval from Bangladesh Bank. But it did not happen in Yunus' case since 1999, the court said.
The HC bench of Justice Mohammad Momtazuddin Ahmed and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore observed that there was no substance in the writ petitions.
Details of the grounds on which the HC rejected the writ petitions could not be known immediately, since the copy of the verdict's full text was not released yesterday.
The Grameen Bank authorities expressed disappointment with the verdict.
Jannat-E-Quanine, general manager for information and media co-ordination of the institution, in a statement said, "We have received the order and are very disappointed. We are consulting with our lawyers about the next steps. We hope that in the meantime nothing will jeopardise the stability of Grameen Bank."
"Eight million borrowers and 26,000 members of Grameen Bank have brought the bank to this level through their hard work and are deeply involved in building the future for their children -- we hope nothing will disrupt that," it added.