The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule asking authorities concerned to explain in four weeks as to why the big loan defaulters have been allowed to reschedule their credits under special facilities given through a Bangladesh Bank (BB) circular issued on July 18 last.
It also raised a question about curtailing monitoring powers of the central bank.
The HC asked the authorities to explain as to why the clauses 4(2) (3), 5, 6 and 9 of the circular should not be declared illegal.
Secretaries of the Cabinet, Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Finance and Law, Bangladesh Bank Governor and three other respondents have been asked to comply with the rule.
The HC 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 on August 22 last challenging the clauses of the circular.
Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the 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 10-30 per cent deposit for rescheduling a loan, a defaulter can deposit only 2.5-4.0 per cent now. Besides, this circular abrogates Bangladesh Bank's authority in rescheduling the loans," he said.
He added: "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."
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