The
High Court has withdrawn its previous verdict in favor of the National Board of
Revenue (NBR), which had declared the legitimacy of its BDT 6.66 billion claim
against Grameen Kalyan, an organization linked to Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad
Yunus. Yesterday (Thursday, October 3), the High Court bench of Justice
Mohammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar and Justice Sardar Md. Rashed Jahangir withdrew
the verdict.
In
August, a petition was filed on behalf of Dr. Yunus, challenging the NBR’s
claim of BDT 6.66 billion. On August 4, the same High Court bench dismissed the
petition, upholding the legitimacy of the NBR’s claim, which would have
required Grameen Kalyan to pay the amount.
At
the time, Dr. Yunus’s lawyer, Abdullah Al Mamun, argued that the Deputy
Commissioner had assessed the tax, but the Commissioner approved the file.
According to him, “Without the Commissioner’s approval, the Deputy Commissioner
cannot determine the tax. This was the basis of the challenge.”
However,
due to a political shift, one of the judges on the bench later realized that he
had previously participated in a hearing for the case on behalf of the state.
Therefore, he could not issue the ruling, leading to the withdrawal of the
previous verdict.
The matter has now been referred to Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed for resolution. As per the rules, the Chief Justice will now assign a new bench for the case’s hearing.