Kathmandu, August 19

Senior-most Justice of the Supreme Court Deepak Raj Joshee, who had gone on a 15-day leave after being rejected by the Parliamentary Hearing Committee for the post of chief justice, went on six-day casual leave beginning today after his 15-day leave ended on Friday.

Joshee said he had informed the president about his decision to seek six-day casual leave. “In the case of casual leave, I am only required to inform the president,” he said when asked if he was required to seek approval of the president. His 15-day leave was sanctioned by the president.

Joshee told THT that he had not thought of resigning from his post and was awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Council which had nominated him for the post of chief justice.

“The decision of the Parliamentary Hearing Committee rejecting my nomination for CJ was illegal because a new law governing the process of the PHC hearing had not been enacted and the parliamentary panel had conducted the hearing without any rules,” he said. He added that he had already performed his duty as a justice of the SC for the last three years and therefore was eligible for the top judiciary post.

“I hope the next meeting of the  Constitutional Council will take a look at the PHC decision and see what went wrong,” Joshee said when asked what he would do after the end of his casual leave.

Justice Om Prakash Mishra, who is the senior-most justice after Joshee, assumed the charge of acting CJ and went on 16-day leave.

Joshee automatically became acting CJ on March 15 after Gopal Parajuli was told in writing by the Judicial Council that he had reached his retirement age on August 5, 2017.  Some ruling party leaders have demanded the resignation of Justice Joshee in the face of Joshee’s rejection by the PHC. Constitutional Council had called a meeting a few days ago but postponed it after Sher Bahadur Deuba, the leader of the opposition, who is a member of the CC, informed the Secretariat that he was going out of the country for a week for a health check-up and would be unable to attend the meeting.