The High Court on Monday upheld the process of merging five Shariah-based banks with the newly formed Consolidated Islamic Bank Limited, in line with the decision of the interim government. The court summarily dismissed a writ petition filed by a general stock market investor challenging the legality of this merger. As a result of this ruling, the merger decision approved by the interim government on 9 October will remain effective.

The court dismissed the writ petition on the grounds that the Bank Regulation Ordinance, 2025 under which the merger was carried out does not contain any provision for protecting the interests of shareholders. This information was confirmed by the petitioner’s lawyer, Barrister Syed Mahsib Hossain. He also stated that he has not yet received instructions from his client regarding whether they will appeal the decision to the higher court.

The writ hearing was conducted by a High Court bench comprising Justice Fahmida Kader and Justice Md. Asif Hassan. Stock market investor Shahidul Islam filed the petition on 18 November. Barrister Hossain represented him during the hearing, while Additional Attorney General Md. Arshadur Rouf appeared for the state.

In his petition, Shahidul Islam questioned why the authorities were not taking steps to protect the interests of existing shareholders of the five listed banks First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank, Global Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, and EXIM Bank. Before the merger, regulators had stated that since the asset value tied to the existing shares of these banks was negative, shareholders would not receive any share allocation in the new merged entity. As per the decision, the assets and liabilities of these banks will be merged with the large state-owned Islamic Bank.