Staff Reporter :
People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited (PLFSL), a non-bank financial institution, would be reconstructed instead of winding up. The High Court has okayed a petition filed by 201 depositors of the company to revive or reconstruction of the institution.
The HC Bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order on Monday after holding hearing on the petition filed by the depositors.
The court has also constituted the proposed board of directors that would conduct the functions of the financial institution instead of its provisional liquidator. However, the details of the board members will be in the detailed court order, the court said.
The court indicated that the chairman of the board of directors may be a retired judge of the HC division of the Supreme Court or an eminent lawyer. It also observed that a chartered accountant, a lawyer, a high-ranking government official and one of the depositors would be on the board of directors.
The court expected that this board will be able to recover the loans of the defaulted borrowers and will play effective role in attracting investors who can take over the management of the company.
Before passing the order the judge said he had held an online meeting with Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor, security and exchange commission (SEC) chairman and anti-corruption commission (ACC) chairman in where BB governor opined that they had no objection if any initiative is taken to revive PLFSL.
The depositors recently filed the petition through their lawyer, Shamim Ahmed Mehedi, with the HC seeking its directive to revive or reconstruction of the institution.
Lawyer Ahsanul Karim appeared in the hearing on behalf of the depositors of the PLFSL, while Barrister Tanjib ul Alam appeared for Bangladesh Bank and Barrister Mejbahur Rahman represented the provisional liquidator of the PLFSL Md Asaduzzaman Khan.
During the hearing Bangladesh Bank lawyer Tanjib ul Alam said that the depositors don’t have any locus standi (a right to appear in a court on a given question) to file such petition. But the court can pass a Suo Moto (voluntary move) order over the issue and in that case the BB would not oppose it.