The High Court on Tuesday questioned the legality of a Bangladesh Bank circular that has given special facilities to big defaulters in rescheduling their loans and curtailing monitoring powers of the central bank.
It issued a rule asking the concerned bodies of the government to explain in four weeks as to why clauses 4(2)(3), 5, 6 and 9 of the Bangladesh Bank circular issued on July 18 in 2022 giving special facilities to big defaulters in rescheduling their loans and curtailing monitoring powers of the central bank in this regard should not be declared illegal.
Cabinet Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Secretary, Finance Secretary, Law Secretary, Bangladesh Bank Governor and three other respondents have been asked to comply with the rule.
The High Court bench of Justice J B M Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), a rights organisation, filed the writ petition challenging the clauses of the circular on August 22 this year.
Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the writ petitioners, while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state.
Mr Manzill Murshid said, “The new governor of the Bangladesh Bank issued a new circular on July 18 over loan rescheduling cancelling the earlier circular.
In the new circular, the loan repayment period has been made five years, which was earlier 2 years. Instead of a 10 to 30 per cent deposit for rescheduling a loan, a defaulter can deposit only 2.5-4 per cent now. Besides, this circular abrogates Bangladesh Bank's authority in rescheduling loans.
“In case of receiving a new loan, now 2.5 per cent has to be deposited instead of the previous minimum amount of 15 per cent. Depositors may face disaster if these rules continue.”
