HC to hear plea for liquidation

The High Court (HC) on Monday accepted for further hearing a petition that seeks liquidation of Grameen Telecom, owned by Nobel laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus.
However, the court rejected another portion of the plea seeking recruitment of an administrator in the company.
The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after primarily hearing the causes.
Mahmud Hasan Feroz, secretary of 'Grameen Telecom union of workers and employees' filed the petition this February on behalf of all 99 members of the union.
Lawyer Yousuf Ali appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioners while lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan represented the Grameen Telecom.
Mr Ali says, "Workers and employees are entitled to get 5.0 per cent of the net profit of Grameen Telecom as per the rule. The dues since 2006 are more than 2.5 billion now."
"But the company is not giving the dues to the employees. In the circumstances, they moved the Labour Court," he adds.
"We've enough evidence that Prof Yunus is trying to influence the Labour Court's ruling. In this situation, we've appealed to the HC to appoint a liquidator for the company."
Mr Rahman earlier said, "Grameen Telecom is a non-profit entity. The law under which the employees are demanding dues doesn't apply to this organisation."
"And if they get money, then the amount of the money is not so much that is claimed by them," he added.
"Grameen Telecom tried to hire a consultant for out-of-court settlement. But finally they didn't. Now the union leaders are saying that Grameen Telecom tried to influence the court ruling, law and labour ministers."
"They also stated this in the petition submitted in the High Court. This type of statement is totally baseless and worthless," cited Mr Rahman.
Without any discussion with the union, Grameen Telecom laid off 99 employees through a notice. Since then dissatisfaction started among the employees.
Later, a writ petition was filed with the HC challenging the notification.
Upon hearing the petition, the higher court also summoned Dr Yunus. Finally, the court on 04 April 2021 directed the authorities to reinstate the employees.
Apart from this, several other cases were filed against Dr Yunus and other officials of Grameen Telecom on different times demanding dues.

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