Kathmandu, July 28

Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha today held discussions with Minister of General Administration Lalbabu Pandit on the implementation of a recent Supreme Court report about the management of judicial staff.

According to a press release issued by the Supreme Court, CJ Shrestha told Minister Pandit that the government needed to add more posts in the judiciary so that sufficient number of staff could be recruited to handle the growing number of court cases. According to an SC report, the judiciary had 107,371 cases 10 years ago, but the number has reached 180,026 now.

Shrestha told Minister Pandit that the lack of judicial staff was adversely affecting delivery of service in the judiciary.

Minister Pandit said the government would try its best to implement SC’s report to enable the judiciary to meet its current challenge, according to the release. Some government secretaries were also present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the CJ today formed a nine-member Increasing Access to Justice Commission. Other members of the commission include Justice Sushila Karki, Attorney General, Secretary at the Ministry of Law and Justice, President of Nepal Bar Association, Vidhya Kishor Ray ‘Bimal,’ Durga Sob, Associate Professor Kumar Ingnam and SC Registrar Shrikant Paudel. The commission is mandated to raise awareness among the marginalised sections of society, identify bottlenecks to ensure people’s access to justice and recommend remedial approaches.

Similarly, the full court of Supreme Court has modified the directive related to Legal Aid Officers.

SC Registrar Paudel said transparency would be ensured in the appointment of Legal Aid Officers. Legal Aid Officers will now have to visit jails and detention centres to provide legal services to their clients. “The court will closely monitor the Legal Aid Officers’ performance,” said Paudel.