The Appellate Division has upheld the status quo order on the transfer of Dhaka Elevated Expressway shares held by an Italian-Thai company to Chinas Sinohydro Corporation Limited.
A full eight-member bench of justices led by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan made the decision after a hearing on Thursday.
The order will remain in place until the first arbitration meeting is held between the Italian-Thai company and the Chinese company over the debt dispute, but afterwards there will be nothing blocking the transfer, lawyers said.
On May 16, the Appellate Division issued a two-week halt on the transfer of the shares.
Senior lawyer ABM Amin Uddin, Sheikh Mohammad Morshed and Imtiaz Faruk represented the Italian-Thai company while Advocates Mehdi Hasan Chodhury and Mostafizur Rahman Khan represented Sinohydro.
Mehdi said, "We told the court that work has stopped. The status quo order will be maintained until the day of the first meeting of the arbitration process. This means the status quo will not be in place after the first meeting, which means there will be nothing barring the transfer of shares." — bdnews24.com
