Judges, lawyers in Nepal protest outside SC, demand resignation of Chief Justice

Judges of the Nepal Supreme Court and lawyers associated with the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) protested on Sunday and demanded the resignation of Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana.

Tying black ribbons around their arm, the NBA demonstrated on the premises of the Supreme Court demanding the resignation of the Chief Justice.

"Now the first starting point is the resignation of Chief Justice. Then after comes procedures and needs of making amendments in the judicial system of the nation which might be constitution amendment and upon being not enough, there could be talks about the parties too. We obviously would advance forward in these things," Chandreshwor Shrestha, President of Nepal Bar Association announced.

Earlier, the justices and advocates in Supreme Court had boycotted the hearing sessions and benches allotted by CJ Rana blaming him for making attempts to take political and personal incentives while delivering verdicts.

Amongst the allegations of misappropriation labelled at CJ Rana is the decision to reduce the imprisonment of the then DIG of Armed Police Force, Ranjan Koirala.

Lawyers and advocates have said that CJ Rana "deliberately" ignored review on the case.

Koirala was sentenced to life imprisonment on April 20, 2014, by the Kathmandu District Court and then pronounced by Patan High Court after a review petition was filed. However, the joint bench of Chief Justice Rana and Justice Tej Bahadur KC had reduced the sentence to eight and a half years though it was a case of murder and an attempt to erase the evidence.
Koirala in 2012 had murdered his wife and then disposed the body in a jungle in outskirts of Kathmandu and misled the police with false information. After the verdict made by CJ Rana's bench, the Office of the Attorney General had filed a review petition on July 23, 2020, the same day as the verdict.

On the fourth day, on July 26, a joint bench of Justices Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Regmi granted permission to review the verdict. No hearing has been scheduled over the case, though 15 months have passed since the review was officially allowed.

The lawyers and advocates who have come down against the Chief Justice for the first time in Nepali legal history claim that the latest round of agitation would ward off ill-practices that remains in the judicial system.

"This agitation is not only against the sitting Chief Justice, it is for those who would come in further lying days and also for reinforcement of judiciary. We will take the issue forward up to the issue of constitution amendment and changes in those sectors where now exists the loopholes or are being infringed on various grounds," Purna Man Shakya, President of Supreme Court Bar Association Nepal warned.

But CJ Rana in his interview with a local media had defended himself claiming all the allegations to be false and has continued to allot benches and cases on daily basis.

On Sunday too, CJ Rana scheduled 248 cases in 12 benches out of which 2 of the cases were in his single bench while 14 cases in the joint bench which was boycotted by other justice and lawyers.

Earlier, CJ Rana had landed into criticism for attending a meeting of the Constitutional Council held after the issuance of an ordinance by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

A separate writ petition was lodged then issued ordinance and appointments that were made in accordance with it. The writ petition was there in the Constitutional Bench and the writ against the appointment is in the Division Bench.

Questions had risen high at the time about the presence of Chief Justice in the Constitutional bench as the case was against the head of judicial body and it was mandatory for him to be present in the proceedings.

Soon after the debate, CJ Rana, in his writ petition, announced to stay away from Constitutional Bench. In the meantime, further complicating the dilemma, Judge Hari Phuyal, had given the verdict that hearing in a writ petition related to the mandatory presence of Chief Justice had to be settled prior to making any other decisions with or without the presence of Chief Justice Rana.

Chief Justice Rana, however, has not been able to resolve this issue.

"This is a campaign to make course correction. Not only in judiciary but in all the sectors where constitution has its direct focus and concerns, all of the constitutional bodies now are being defiled for which we have started campaign to correct it, right from reformation in judicial sector," Daman Nath Dhungana, Senior advocate at Supreme Court of Nepal told reporters.

The agitating advocates and justices also have accused Chief Justice Rana of "bench shopping" meaning hearings were held for purpose of making a favorable decision for one of the parties. There are also allegations that the court has failed to do any work of reform.

Overall, there are allegations of anomalies, irregularities and corruption in the judiciary.

The Chief Justice for the last time landed in controversy after his brother-in-law Gajendra Bahadur Hamal was appointed as a non-parliamentary minister to confirm the allegation that he was seeking a share.

Chief Justice Rana has maintained that he will not resign and that he is ready to face impeachment by parliament which is the constitutional process to remove the chief justice.

(ANI)