In a major blow for Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Supreme Court of the country today upheld a High Court order confirming the central bank's decision to remove Yunus as Managing Director of the Grameen Bank. The appeal was turned down by a seven-member full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque. On March 8, the High Court had upheld the central bank order that said Grameen Bank did not take approval before reappointing Dr. Yunus as MD in 2000, violating one of the statutes of the partly state-owned Grameen Bank.
The High Court had found that Dr. Yunus was 70-year-old at the time of reappointed, well above the bank's official retirement age of 60, and the micro-finance institution's board had not obtained the Bangladesh Bank's sanction to re-appoint the Nobel laureate. In his appeal, Dr. Yunus had argued that Grameen Bank had been given special status and the rule did not apply in his case.
Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank are the joint winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Trouble started brewing for Dr. Yunus after a Norwegian television documentary claimed in December last year that Dr. Yunus diverted nearly $100 million of grant money in 1996 to another company — Grameen Kalyan . The documentary claimed that Grameen Kalyan was not involved in micro-credit operations.
Few days ago, a top leader of Bangladesh's ruling party has said that "no one-sided" solution to the issue of removal of Dr. Yunus despite the government's willingness for an "honorable settlement". "We always wanted an honorable resolution to the issue. But one-sided solution to the problem is not possible unless all the sides come forward," local government minister and ruling Awami League's general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters.
