Kathmandu, September 11

Kathmandu District Court is yet to serve notice to former office bearers of Tax Settlement Commission Chudamani Sharma, Lumba Dhwaj Mahat and Umesh Dhakal.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed charge sheets against former Chair of TSC Mahat and former members Dhakal and Sharma accusing them of embezzling millions of rupees while serving as TSC office bearers.

Sharma who was kept in CIAA detention was released on August 12 after the Supreme Court issued a habeas corpus writ filed by Sharma’s wife Kalpana. The chargesheets were filed at the Special Court. Special Court Registrar Bhim Kumar Shrestha said the court had sent a case notice to Kathmandu district telling it to serve notices to Sharma, Dhakal and Mahat as the case files had their addresses in Kathmandu district. “We sent our notices to the district court concerned. Their officials serve those notices to the parties,” Shrestha said. He said the Special Court had sent notices meant for three defendants of the case almost two weeks ago.

Registrar of KDC Krishna Prasad Nepal said the court had not yet deployed its employees for serving the notice to the three defendants.

Nepal said the court employees take notices in bulk, except in cases of urgent notices, and serve them within their jurisdictions. He said the notices for Sharma, Mahat and Dhakal were of ordinary nature. Nepal said KDC was following the right procedures as far as serving notices to them.

Court employees, Nepal said, come to collect notices in a gap of over 10 days and they collect the notices in bulk. He said soon the court employees will collect the notices meant for Sharma, Mahat and Dhakal and serve the documents to them. “He said, normally the court employees are supposed to serve notices to the case parties in 10 to 15 days. They get some more time to report to the court,” Nepal said and added that it was not certain whether the notices will be served to three defendants before Dashain vacation. “If our employees fail to serve notices to these three defendants before, Dashain vacation, then they will probably serve the notices to the defendants after Dashain,” he added.

Nepal said Sharma and other defendants could extend the deadline for appearing before the court by 30 days after receiving the court notices.

Mahat and Dhakal are absconding. The Special Court will record the statements of Sharma, Mahat and Dhakal after they appear before the court and conduct a trial hearing. Registrar of Special Court Bhim Kumar Shrestha said that if the defendants did not appear before the court on the stipulated date, then the court would proceed with the cases.