13 Grameen petitions: HC bench sends those to CJ
A High Court bench today refused to continue the hearing of 13 separate petitions filed by Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom Trust, and sent those to the chief justice for a decision.
The two nonprofitable and charitable companies established by Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus filed the petitions--five writ and eight income tax reference applications—in between 2015 and 2020 challenging the legality of the government imposing several hundred crores of taka as income tax.
Today, the HC bench of Justice Md Iqbal Kabir Lytton and Justice SM Maniruzzaman passed the order.
Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique now may assign another HC bench for hearing and disposing of the petitions.
The order was passed as Justice Maniruzzaman had been involved in the cases as a party on behalf of the state before he was appointed as judge of this court.
Petitioners' lawyer Fida M Kamal earlier mentioned this point before the bench during hearing of the petitions.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state during hearing of the matters.
Grameen Kalyan's petitioner Sarder Jinnat Ali told The Daily Star that Prof Muhammad Yunus has established Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom Trust as nonprofitable trusts under Section 28 of the Company Act, 1994.
The companies have paid the taxes on time, but the government still charged huge amount of money as tax from the companies, he said.
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