Due to legal complications, the ordinary shareholders have been facing financial problems for a long time as their investments on the bank's securities did not yield any dividends yet.

A general investor said the ordinary shareholders of the bank cannot sell their shares with the existing market price as it will bear an ultimate loss to them.

"When the bank will be able to hold the last eight years' AGMs, we will get dividends for those years as we are not selling the shares," he added.

While talking to The Daily Star, Sk G Kuddus, chief executive officer of M Securities Ltd, said, "But, if the legal complications are not resolved soon the bank may not declare any dividends for the year 2006 also or for more years."

In its last AGM held on August 27, 1997, the bank declared a 15 per cent stock dividend for the shareholders for the year 1996 and since then the bank has not been in a position to hold AGMs as legal tangles continued.

Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, a former chairman of the bank, filed writ petitions several times to hold the AGMs of the bank under an unbiased chairmanship. But, the board of directors of the bank did not held AGMs defying the High Court order for holding the AGMs under a neutral leadership.

In this connection, any responsible official could not be reached for comments despite several attempts.

In 1999, Babu filed a writ petition with the High Court praying for holding the AGM for the year 1998 under a neutral chairmanship instead of the then existing chairmanship.

As the hearing of the writ petition was pending, Babu filed another writ petition in 2000 for holding the AGMs for 1999 and 2000 under a neutral chairmanship.

The High Court on April 15, 2002 ordered the bank to hold AGMs for 1998 to 2000 within three months under a neutral chairmanship and also appointed a neutral chairman, Barrister KZ Alam, to hold the AGMs.

But, Alam could not hold the AGMs as the then board of directors appealed to the court seeking time extension for holding the AGMs. Finally, when the appeal was rejected, the then board did not co-operate with the neutral chairman, citing legal complications.

Then Babu filed a petition against the two officials of the bank for not holding 1998-2000 AGMs under the neutral chairmanship.

The High Court fined the two officials who later appealed against the verdict. The Appellate Division also rejected the appeal, upholding the High Court verdict.

Babu then filed another writ petition with the court in 2003 for holding the AGMs for 2001 and 2002.

In the meantime, the UCBL initiated a move to hold the AGMs for the year 2003, 2004 and 2005 with a special permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The bank also announced dividends and to that effect declared the date of book closure.

But, once again Babu filed another writ petition with the court seeking a stay on holding the AGMs until the disputes for holding of AGMs for 1998 to 2002 are settled.

Mansur Alam, executive director of the SEC, said the commission has nothing to do as the matter of holding AGMs is now pending with the courts.