Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Thursday issued a rule asking the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why they should not be directed to initiate and conduct a fair and impartial inquiry in the recent controversy of huge amount of legal fees received by Supreme Court lawyer Yousuf Ali from his 176 clients in the cases filed against Grameen Telecom.
The High Court bench of Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury and Justice Md Zakir Hossain passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed another Supreme Court lawyer.
Law Secretary, Bangladesh Bar Council Chairman and Secretary, and lawyer Yousuf Ali have been asked to comply with the rule, said Barrister Ashraful Islam who filed the writ petition on Wednesday.
Citing the petition Barrister Ashraful said,
“Client may have huge properties or interest involved in the case, but lawyers are not entitled to calculate these value to incur their legal fees, rather every lawyer will incur reasonable fees in regards to their expertise of the particular matter and time involved.”
Supreme Court lawyer Yousuf Ali, a counsel of the ‘Grameen Telecom union of workers and employees’, has received a huge amount of money from his clients as his service charge.
After a controversy raised over the issue, the lawyer on July 3 said, “Tk 12 crore is an imaginary figure. My clients have got a huge amount of money from the Grameen Telecom in an out of court settlement and I also got a big amount fees from them.”
He said he had at least 100 clients who got more than Tk three crore. As per condition all those 100 clients have paid him more than Tk 15 to 20 lakh as his fee. All the fees he received from them through account payee cheques.
Meanwhile, a total of six bank accounts of lawyer Yousuf Ali and his chamber have been frozen after an allegation that the lawyer has received more than Tk 12 crore as fee from his clients in the cases filed against Grameen Telecom.
In a press briefing held in the Supreme Court premises the lawyer said, “I came to know that all of my bank accounts have been frozen. I have three personal accounts. Two are my partner’s accounts and one is my chamber’s account. All the six accounts have been frozen. I had about Tk 2.25 crore in my chamber’s account. “
All the cases filed by ‘Grameen Telecom union of workers and employees’ against Professor Muhammad Yunus and his organization Grameen Telecom had been withdrawn from different courts after the parties reached in a out of court settlement over the claim of the employees.
More than 110 cases were filed against Professor Muhammad Yunus and his organization Grameen Telecom by the employees over their claim, said Barrister Mustafizur who appeared in the High Court hearing on behalf of the Grameen Telecom.
During the hearing of the case on June 30 this year the High Court bench of Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar said, “We have heard that the employees’ lawyer was biased in exchange of money and the employees were forced to settle the case through compromise.”
The High Court also said, “There should not be any irregularity by using the court. If everything is not in accordance with the law, the matter will be taken seriously. I don’t want to see raising of any question about the integrity of the court and the lawyer.”
