In a major development, a High Court (HC) bench yesterday observed that the World Bank has no immunity in Bangladesh. After dismissing a revision petition filed by the World Bank (WB), a single bench of the HC comprised by Justice Borhanuddin declared illegal the termination of WB former external officer Ismet Zerin Khan.
The HC also asked the global lender to reinstate Ismet into her position, Advocate Rubaiyat Hossain, one of the counsels for Ismet Zerin Khan, told The Independent.
She said, “It is a milestone judgment for Bangladesh as a long pending issue over the immunity of World Bank in Bangladesh has been settled following the High Court order.”
“The High Court judgment confirmed that the World Bank does not have immunity in Bangladesh. This is the first time that a Bangladeshi citizen got remedy over any WB action after filing a case,” Hossain said, quoting the verdict. She also said that the verdict has proved that an international financial institution such as the World Bank is not beyond accountability or above the law. It also vindicated the rights of an individual citizen against injustice inflicted through arbitrary, illegal and vindictive actions of the World Bank, she added.
She alleged that it is the third time the World Bank lost in the case in court.  Earlier, it also lost in its several attempts to deter and defer the case in the High Court and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court during the last sixteen years, she added.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, counsel for WB, told The Independent that the High Court verdict regarding the immunity of World Bank in Bangladesh would be effective for its employee. “The World Bank authority must appeal with the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict,” he added.
WB had filed an appeal with the High Court challenging the legality of a trial court verdict that had directed the WB authority to reinstate its former external affairs officer Ismet Zerin Khan to her post.
In its appeal, the WB said that they have employee immunity. So, the court could not proceed with the case as it was not maintainable before the court due to its immunity in Bangladesh.
In 2001, WB authority terminated its external affairs officer Ismet Zerin Khan without following any rules and regulation, as it has impunity in Bangladesh. Ismet later filed a petition before the Administrative Tribunal of the World Bank seeking reinstatement of her service. After disposing of her petition, the administrative tribunal asked the WB authority to give her one-year salary as compensation.
But, Ismet filed a case before a trial court against WB for unlawful termination of her services and sought reinstatement of her service. Since the filing of the case, the World Bank had reportedly put undue pressure on successive governments to sign an Establishment Agreement that would provide them immunity from local suits in Bangladesh. The issue attracted a lot of media coverage over a number of years and protests from various strata of the society against providing the World Bank with blanket immunity. After an extensive review of the matter, the government informed the World Bank that it does not enjoy immunity in Bangladesh.
It was learnt from the case document that World Bank initially ignored fourteen legal summons, falsely claiming immunity, and then made it first appearance in court in March 2002, almost seven months following filing of the suit.
However, after completing the trial proceedings, the additional district judge of a Dhaka Court in 2010 in a verdict asked the WB to reinstate Ismet Zerin Khan along with compensation.
Later, WB filed an appeal with the High Court challenging the legality of the trial court order. But, after hearings, the HC bench yesterday dismissed the WB petition that paved the way for any person to get remedy against any misdeeds by the World Bank, if any.
Former Attorney General AJ Mohammed Ali assisted by Advocate Rubaiyat Hossain appeared for Ismet while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the WB in court.