AD to hear plea for banking commission in January next

The Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed January 3 next year for its regular bench's hearing on a leave to appeal petition, seeking its directive to form a banking commission.

The petition sought the directive on the government so that the commission could look into the irregularities and corruption in the banking sector over a period of last two decades.

Chamber judge of the AD Justice Md Nuruzzaman fixed the date after primary hearing on the petition filed on July 21 this year.

Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), a rights organisation, submitted the leave to appeal petition with the AD against a High Court observation.

Following a writ petition of the HRPB, the HC bench of Justice J B M Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alamon November 3 last year observed that the government was responsible for deciding whether or not the commission would be formed to investigate any irregularities in the banking sector.

Advocate Manzill Murshid, who placed the petition on behalf of HRPB, said that his organization had filed a petition as a public interest litigation with the HC in February last year.

But the court did not pass any directive to form the commission and the court was not inclined to pass an order in making the rule issued in this regard absolute.

Rather the HC ordered the Bangladesh Bank to constitute a nine-member committee to find out the loopholes in sanctioning, disbursement and recovering the loans and recommend necessary measures to this effect, he said.

[email protected]