The High Court on August 1 ordered the arbitration board to immediately hold the hearing of the appeal filed by Bazlur Rahman, vice-president of Narayanganj chamber, and give a verdict as soon as possible.

Earlier on July 31, the FBCCI arbitration board failed to hold the scheduled hearing of the appeal due to legal obligations.

The election board of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) cancelled Rahman's nomination paper alleging that the 'authorisation letter submitted for his candidature and issued by Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was false'.

Challenging the cancellation, Rahman then took the issue to a five-member arbitration tribunal headed by FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo. The tribunal on Sunday told him that it failed to hold a hearing of his appeal due to quorum crisis, as three of the five-member board were not present.

On August 1, the High Court stayed the publication of a valid list of candidates and issued a show cause notice on the government and the FBCCI to explain within a week why the cancellation of Rahman's nomination would not be declared illegal.

The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Rahman, challenging the cancellation of his nomination paper.

Meanwhile, following a writ petition filed by Bangladesh-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCCI), High Court on Wednesday ordered the FBCCI to include BCCCI on its voter list and allow the Chamber to contest for directorship in the FBCCI election 2005-07, scheduled for August 21.