The High Court has imposed a six-month ban on Nirapon, an alliance of 23 foreign RMG brands that oversee building inspection, remediation, and monitoring of listed apparel factories in Bangladesh. The High Court also issued a rule asking Nirapon to explain within two weeks why it should not be ordered to join the RMG Sustainability Council, a tripartite compliance and safety monitoring body of the apparel sector that will formally come into being on November 25.

Nirapon was established as a common platform, by global RMG brands, for whom Bangladesh is an important sourcing destination, to sustain and build on the safety achievements of the past six years. More than 600 factories are functioning under Nirapon, which requires that the National Action Plan be met on a continued basis, as well as synchronised standards for physical, structural, fire, and electrical safety.

After the collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed 1,135 people in 2013, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of North American apparel brands and retailers, started to work with Bangladeshi apparel industry to improve safety standards within a five year time frame.