Bangladesh's Supreme Court adjourned a hearing on Tuesday on whether Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has fallen out with the government, was illegally removed from his pioneering ‘microfinance’ bank.
Yunus, who won the Nobel Prize in 2006 for his concept of small cash loans to help tackle poverty, did not attend the hearing, at which he is appealing against a central bank order which sacked him from Grameen Bank.
"Our legal team sought more time to prepare our case and to allow discussions to continue," his lawyer Tamin Husain Shawan told the media.
"The hearing has been adjourned until April 4. We were seeking a four-week deferment but the Supreme Court turned this down."
The United States warned last week that ties with Bangladesh could be affected if a solution was not found to the clash between the government and Yunus, who is celebrated worldwide for his work helping the poor.
Yunus, 70, was dismissed as managing director of Dhaka-based Grameen Bank last month in what his supporters said was the culmination of a political vendetta against him.
He has defied the central bank order, returning to work at Grameen's headquarters and lodging the appeal contesting his dismissal.
Supporters of Yunus claim the economist was ousted from the helm of his own bank after falling out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when he set up a short-lived political party in 2007.