Thaindian News

Dhaka, May 5 (IANS) Bangladeshi Nobel laureate and Grameen Bank pioneer Muhammad Yunus Thursday lost a third consecutive appeal before the Supreme Court against his removal from the bank.

After the apex court rejected two petitions, one by Yunus and the other by the bank’s directors, their lawyers expressed dissatisfaction at the verdict and said they would appeal after studying the latest order.

Sara Hussain, counsel for the nine directors, said they were “apprehending whether there is rule of law or rule of power in the country”, Star Online, website of The Daily Star reported.

Yunus’s counsel, former law minister Kamal Hussain, said: “We did not get remedy from the SC (Supreme Court). Where will we go now for the remedy?”

“We have to see on which ground the SC passed the order. If it made similar observation with the HC (High Court), I have to a take admission to a university again for learning constitutional laws of the 21st century newly,” Hussain said.

Talking to reporters, Rozina Begum, one of the directors, demanded that the government appoint Yunus as chairman of the board of directors of Grameen Bank.

A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque passed the order on conclusion of the hearing on the two petitions.

Yunus had sought withdrawal of the apex court’s April 5 order that dismissed his leave-to-appeal petition against the High Court verdict upholding the Bangladesh Bank order removing him from the post.

Yunus pioneered Grameen as a rural banking network three decades ago. The Grameen model has been replicated in many countries, winning Yunus and the bank the joint Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Yunus, 71, has been fighting a legal battle since early March when the central bank dismissed him as Grameen Bank managing director saying he had violated the organisation’s retirement rules.

Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, had issued an order removing Yunus saying the rules governing the banking sector in the country require the CEO to retire at 60.

Some foreign governments and an influential group of international luminaries have demanded that the bank’s autonomy be sustained.

The Bangladesh government says it is not interfering with the bank’s working. It is only applying the rules governing the country’s banking sector, as Grameen is a scheduled bank.