Nobel laureate loses legal fight to keep job

April 06, 2011|Associated Press

Yunuss bank gave microloans to alleviate poverty.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus lost his final court appeal yesterday to remain in control of the pioneering microlending bank he founded nearly three decades ago to lift Bangladeshis out of poverty.

The ruling capped a monthlong dispute between the government and Yunus — an outspoken government critic — over the right of the “banker to the poor’’ to continue as managing director of the Grameen Bank.

Bangladesh’s central bank removed the 71-year-old Yunus from the post last month, saying he violated banking regulations on retirement. The High Court upheld his removal and he appealed then to the Supreme Court, his last legal option.

Yunus has said the dismissal was illegal and alleged that the government was trying to take control of his bank, which pioneered the practice of giving tiny loans to alleviate poverty. His work spurred a boom in such lending across the developing world, earning him and the bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

“The appeal is dismissed,’’ Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque said in his one-sentence ruling at a crowded courtroom of the country’s highest court.

Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam said Yunus cannot hold the post any longer.

Yunus was not in court, but he told his staff that he respects the ruling.