Bangladesh Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Nobel laureate
Muhammad Yunus ' final appeal against a central bank order sacking him from the position of managing director of the Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983.
"Rejected," Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque pronounced as the seven-member Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court verdict validating the Bangladesh Bank decision to sack him.
The verdict came as reports this week said talks to resolve the issue outside the court progressed towards a "positive direction" amid growing international criticism against his unceremonious dismissal from the pioneering microfinance bank that he founded three decades ago.
The apex court earlier adjourned until April 4 the hearing on 70-year-old Yunus' appeal allowing both sides to take more time to reach a compromise as insisted by the US and other major development partners.
Yunus was fired from his position as the Grameen Bank's managing director last month as the Bangladesh Bank found that his 2000 appointment as the microlending agency's executive chief was faulty because the central bank's mandatory approval was not obtained at that time.
Yunus' experiment of poor men's banking earned Bangladesh the repute of being the home of microcredit and himself the Nobel Peace Prize along with his Grameen Bank in 2006.
Analysts earlier said Yunus's troubles stem from 2007 when he announced formation of a political party, an idea that was visibly unwelcome by Prime Minister Sheijh Hasina and her archrival Khaleda Zia of BNP, while he himself abandoned the idea within months.
The government has 25 per cent stake in Grameen Bank that employs 24,000 people, provides collateral-free loans to eight million borrowers, the vast majority from rural areas after detailed talks familiar with the Grameen Bank activities.
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