HC verdict on UCBL writ upheld

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FE Report
The Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court (SC) upheld Wednesday the verdict of the High Court (HC) on the writ petition of the United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) giving validity to the record date of July 30, 2008 earlier fixed by the bank.
In the verdict the Appellate Division said the UCBL either will follow the record date of July 30, 2008 or fix another record date on a subsequent date.
The verdict also pronounced invalid the record date of September 25, 2005. The UCBL first had fixed the record date of September 25, 2005 to offer 50 per cent stock dividends for 2005. But due to a legal complexity, the annual general meeting (AGM) following the record date could not be held.
Later, the UCBL had fixed another record date, July 30, 2008, for offering stock dividends of 90 per cent for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004.
If a shareholder had sold his shares after September 25, 2005, he would not be entitled to any dividend declared for the year 2005.
So a section, who stood to lose, if the second record date was followed, had gone to court seeking revival of the first record date
However, eminent lawyer Dr. M Zahir, who pleaded on behalf of the general investors, was overwhelmed by the verdict.
"It's a victory of the small investors and in my whole life, I've moved three challenging cases and UCBL is one of them," Dr. M Zahir told the FE.
"There's no instance, nowhere in the world, that the record date before holding any Annual General Meeting (AGM) has been pushed back. That's why the court declared invalid the first record date of Sept 25, 2005," he said.
Two other prominent lawyers, Barrister Rokon Uddin Mahmud and former Attorney General (AG) Hasan Arif, moved the case on behalf of the UCBL.
On the other hand, TH Khan, Barrister Rafiqul Haq, Barrister Azmalul Hossain QC and Advocate Ahsanul Karim were the lawyers of the UCBL chairman.