The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today upheld a High Court verdict that scrapped all the proceedings of five cases filed against Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, now the chief adviser to the interim government.

The cases were filed under the Labour Act in 2019 on charges of illegally terminating some workers of Grameen Telecommunications as Yunus was the chairman of the organisation that time.

Today, the Appellate Division dismissed a leave to appeal petition filed by the state challenging the HC verdict that on October 24 quashed all proceedings of the five cases after hearing five petitions filed by Yunus challenging the legality of filing the cases.

Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan appeared for Yunus, while Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque represented the state during the hearing.

Mustafizur earlier told The Daily Star that five cases were filed in 2019 with the Labour Court against Yunus, the then chairman of Grameen Telecommunications, and its Managing Director, Nazneen Sultana.

Some former workers of Grameen Telecommunications lodged the cases on charges of terminating them illegally from services as they were the office bearers of the proposed trade union, he said.

The HC scrapped the proceedings of the cases on the grounds that the application filed by the workers for running the trade union had been rejected by the Directorate of Labour, their appointments on a contractual basis to Grameen Telecommunications had expired, and therefore, it cannot be said that they were dismissed from services as they were office bearers of any trade union.

Besides, the Directorate of Labour had not filed the cases, the lawyer said, adding that the Directorate of Labour was responsible for lodging such cases under the Labour Act.