Budhathoki had gone to court after the bank’s board removed him charging him with incompetence.

Following the court’s decision on Sunday, Sitaula said that that he would start clearing the files that had been piling up on his desk since the last one month. “Due to the court case, the bank had to suffer financially as we lost a few clients, and my focus will be on recovering lost ground,” he added.

ADBL had not been able to process a number of applications for large loans which led to the potential borrowers going elsewhere. “Our recovery was also affected as we could not provide interest subsidies to borrowers who had defaulted loans in the past and were ready to repay them,” he added.

The ADBL board had appointed Sitaula as its CEO from among 14 candidates last December.