The High Court (HC) has reconstructed the board of directors of the International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL), a non-banking financial institution which is in trouble due to loan irregularities.
The court has brought changes to all the posts of directors, while retaining the present chairman, as there are allegations of loan irregularities against the removed directors - the allegations include assisting much-talked about Proshanta Kumar Halder, popularly known as PK Halder.
Syed Abu Naser Bakhtear Ahmed, former managing director and CEO of Agrani Bank Limited; Md Shafiqul Islam, retired senior district and sessions judge and former director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC); Brigadier General (retired) Md Meftaul Karim; Barrister Md Ashraf Ali; and FCA Enamul Hasan have been included in the new board of directors of the ILFSL through the court order.
The High Court earlier appointed N I Khan, a former secretary of the government, as the chairman of the organisation.
A one-member bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after hearing a petition filed in this regard. The court passed the verbal order on June 16 this year, while the written text of the order was released on Monday.
The court has directed the authorities concerned to send the new list to the Bangladesh Bank with a forwarding letter to record the above-named persons as the directors of the ILFSL - and Bangladesh Bank is directed to do the needful to let the board of directors of the ILFSL form and run as per the court order.
The court at the same time dismissed the immediate past board of directors that included M Nurul Islam, Nasim Anwar, Bashudeb Banarjee, Nwosherul Islam, Md Anwarul Kabir, Barrister Nuruzzaman and Muhammad Abul Hashem.
Barrister Mahfuzur Rahman Milon, who appeared in the court on behalf of ILFSL, said the ILFSL had filed a petition with the High Court on May 30 this year for induction of four independent directors in the board to fulfil its 11-member quorum.
During the hearing on the petition filed for reconstruction of the board of directors, Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan, who appeared in the court for the ACC, said, "A number of criminal charges of cognizable offences are pending against all the seven members of the present (dismissed by the court) board of directors of the ILFSL except the court appointed Chairman N I Khan and till date they remain fugitive."
Unless they (the dismissed directors) obtain bail from the competent court of the land, they cannot attend any board meeting of the ILFSL, he further said.
Upon hearing the parties, the court said, "It means that the company is currently not in position to call its any type of meeting with the required quorum towards smoothly running its business because of not having sufficient numbers in its board of directors."
The above situation leads this court to appoint some independent directors from the retired bankers, business persons, and dignitaries from other disciplines, added the court.
Meanwhile, some of the creditors of the ILFSL in December, 2019 filed an application with the High Court for winding up the company.
Following the petition, the court in an order said, "Considering the greater interest of the country, instead of admitting this application for winding up of this company, if the company is allowed to run its usual businesses with the aid of some experienced and honest dignitaries of the country, then, the interest of the common shareholders and depositors will be better protected."
In that order, the court appointed Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, as an independent director and chairman of the company but he finally resigned with a finding that it was difficult to bring the company back to its normal situation.
Later, the court appointed N I Khan in the post.
