DHAKA, Aug 2: The Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court on Thursday stayed until Aug 14 the High Court orders granting bail to detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and halted the proceedings of the extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules.

The six-member full court of the Appellate Division, chaired by Chief Justice M. Ruhul Amin, ordered the attorney-general to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against Monday’s High Court orders.

The apex court also asked the High Court to dispose of the writ petition, filed on behalf of Awami League president Hasina, as soon as possible.

The orders of the highest court came up a day after a full court hearing of the government’s provisional petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court orders.

Attorney-general Fida M. Kamal told reporters that “the orders of the Appellate Division mean that the Tk 3 crore extortion case against Sheikh Hasina may go on at the trial court”.

Azam J. Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Trading, had filed the case on June 13, accusing Hasina and her cousin, former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, of extorting Tk 2.99 crore from him in return for allowing him to build a power plant in Siddhirganj during Hasina’s 1996-2001 regime.

However, Hasina’s chief counsel Rafique ul Huq told reporters that the orders would have no efficacy after Aug 14 and then the High Court orders would come into effect.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court is scheduled to hold on Aug 16 the hearing on acceptance of the charge-sheet submitted by police in the extortion case.

“I am disappointed with the order of the highest court,” said Hasina’s chief lawyer.

Chief Justice Amin, on behalf of the full court, passed the orders in a few words in the jam-packed courtroom. The security in the Supreme Court’s premises had been tightened with the deployment of additional police forces.

On July 30, a High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury granted Hasina an interim bail in the case and directed the government not to proceed further with the extortion case under the emergency rules.

Hasina was arrested on July 16 from Sudha Sadan, her husband’s Dhanmondi residence, and later a Dhaka court refused to award her bail and sent her to jail.