Dr Yunus’s labour case to continue: Appellate Division

There is no legal bar to continue Dr Muhammad Yunus’s labour court case, said the Appellate Division on Sunday.

A seven-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order today dismissing a leave to appeal petition filed by Dr Yunus challenging a High Court verdict that rejected his petition against the labour court’s indictment order.

After the court order, Yunus’s lawyer Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun said, “They are not happy with the court judgment as they were not given enough time for the hearing.”

On August 8, a High Court Division comprising Justice SM Quddus Zaman and Justice Shahed Noor Uddin rejected the rule. Lawyer of the defendant Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun made a plea against the order to the Appellate Division.

Earlier on July 23 this year, a High Court bench issued the rule asking the state to explain why the labour court ordered that framed charges against Dr Yunus and three others should not be scrapped, followed by an application submitted on May 19 by the noble laureate.

On June 6, charges were framed against them four.

Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Inspector Arifuzzaman filed the case against Dr Yunus, Grameen Telecom Managing Director Ashraful Hasan, Board Directors Nurjahan Begum and Md Shahjahan on September 9, 2021, and the court summoned the four to appear before it by October 12, 2021.

According to the case documents, a team of the DIFE went on an inspection to Grameen Telecom and found violations of labour laws like not regularizing 101 staff and not establishing a welfare fund for the labourers, among others.