The High Court has questioned the legitimacy of the licence of Nagad, a mobile money company under the Bangladesh Post Office.
Following a Wednesday writ petition hearing, Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo of the High Court issued a rule asking why Nagad’s licence would not be cancelled.
Lawyer Kamal Hossain Miaji represented the writ petition, while Deputy Attorney General Aravind Kumar Ray stood for the state, reports bdnews24.com.
Supreme Court lawyers Md Abu Bakar Siddiquee and Md Hasanuzzaman filed the petition in the public interest on Oct 27.
The judges on Wednesday asked why the business activities of Nagad, which operated “illegally and without approval” since receiving a temporary licence from the central bank in 2019 as a mobile financial service company, would not be declared illegal under 2018 and 2022 regulations.
The High Court bench also questioned why Nagad’s temporary registration would not be nullified.
The finance secretary, the Bangladesh Bank governor, the director general of the central bank’s payment system department, the director general of the Directorate of Posts, the managing director of Nagad and editors of The Daily Star, The New Age and The Business Standard face a four-week deadline to respond to the rule.
Advocate Kamal later said the MFS regulations of 2018 stipulate that a company must be an associate entity of a commercial bank to provide such services, which Nagad never was.
Citing a change to the regulations this year, Kamal said the service-providing companies were now allowed to be part of a financial institution or any government organisation or agency, besides being connected to a bank.
Nagad was yet to associate itself with any of these, he said.
On Nagad identifying itself as an associate entity of the Bangladesh Post Office, Kamal said: “Nagad is not associated with the Post Office. We collected Nagad’s documents from the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms and submitted them to the court.”
“The Bangladesh Post Office does not even own 1 per cent of Nagad.”
He said that a bank, any financial institution, or a government agency or organisation must own at least 51 per cent of mobile money companies or have controlling shares to make them legitimate.
