The Supreme Court has extended a stay order granting bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two cases to June 24.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, passed the order on Thursday.
The court also asked the state counsel to file regular leave-to-appeal-petition against the High Court order within the period.
Attorney General MahbubeyAlam stood for the state while advocate Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali, and Khandaker Mahbub Hossain stood for Khaleda.
Earlier on May 29, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique stayed the High Court order that had granted bail to Khaleda until May 31.
On May 28, the High Court granted interim bail to the BNP chairperson in two cases and rejected her bail petition in a defamation case filed in Narail.
Soon after the order, the government filed a petition with the Appellate Division challenging it.
Of the cases, two were filed in Comilla on charges of plotting to carry out subversive acts and another in Narail on defamation charges.
On May 19, the High Court granted permission to Khaleda to file the bail petitions after her lawyers appealed for permission.
The Appellate Division earlier on May 18 upheld the High Court order that had granted bail to Khaleda in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
However, the BNP chief was not freed from jail as she was shown arrested in the cases filed in Comilla, Dhaka, Narail, and Panchagarh.
The BNP chairperson is now facing a total of 36 cases.