Professor K. Shamsuddin Mahmood, Dean, School of Law, BRAC University was invited by the North South University (NSU) to deliver a lecture in the ‘NSU Law Lecture Series’ on 10th April 2018 in their campus. The topic was titled and styled as: ‘Has the Bankruptcy Act 1997 live up to its expectation’, which was attended by the Dean of SHSS andChair of the Department of Law along with faculty members and students as well.
Professor Mahmoodin his lecture tried to show and outline that an empirical study and research would reveal that the enactment of Bankruptcy Act 1997 could not serve the purpose or the desire of the legislature in as much as, the Act could never be used successfully as a ‘recovery law’ for which the Legislature intended to enact the same. He pointed out empathetically by comparing and contrasting the principles behind the law of bankruptcy that from philosophical perspective the aforesaid enactment was a misnomer and futile exercise, because a law which is based on the principle of humanity (as Insolvency/Bankruptcy Act are so) can never be construed as a ‘recovery law’ to recover defaulting loans from entrepreneurs.He opined that the failure of Bankruptcy Act 1997, in fact, necessitated the Government of Bangladesh to enact the Money Loan Court Act 2003 in a subsequent stage which was proved to be more effective in terms of providing relief to banks and financial institutions and they all are taking recourse to the same law to realize their claims from the defaulting borrowers instead of using the Bankruptcy Act 1997.
After the lecture, there was a Q&A session where students and the faculty members asked questions and sought expert opinion.In the concluding session both Dean of SHSS and Chair of the Department of Law, NSU thanked Mr. Mahmood for his eloquent and thought-provoking deliberation.
The event was a success and was highly appreciated by the students and the faculty members as well.