PHSC receives five complaints against CJ nominee Joshee

  • Two complaints are related to verdicts issued by the acting chief justice

Kathmandu, July 24

Five complaints were filed at the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee today against chief justice nominee Deepak Raj Joshee.

The hearing on the complaints will take place on July 26. Two of the five complaints have been filed anonymously, said Kesab Aryal, deputy spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat.

The PHSC will prepare questionnaire tomorrow. “We will form a questionnaire committee and it will prepare all the questions for hearing,” said Yogesh Bhattarai, a PHSC member.

Bhattarai said two of the anonymous complaints were related to verdicts delivered by Joshee in property cases as well as a case involving casinos.

PHSC confirms or rejects a nominee after hearing the candidate’s argument as to why he/she is fit for the job. As per the new rules, the PHSC will also call members of Nepal Bar Association and some senior jurists on the day the hearing for CJ nominee will be conducted.

“We will also hear the arguments of some jurists before we hear the arguments of the CJ nominee,” Bhattarai said.

A PHSC member said on condition of anonymity that one complainant had stated that the acting CJ caused huge loss to the government by issuing stay order on the government’s decision to tax casinos. The government had been levying tax on casinos for the last four years.

The member also said that the complainant also stated that Acting CJ Joshee organised an extravagant party at a star hotel in violation of the law.

The Constitutional Council had, on June 12, recommended Joshee as the new chief justice. Joshee has been working as the acting CJ since March 15, a day after the Judicial Council wrote a letter to then chief justice Gopal Parajuli informing him that he had reached retirement age on August 5, 2017.  Joshee is the senior-most justice of the Supreme Court.