Kathmandu, April 27

Parliamentary Regulations Drafting Committee Chairperson Radheshyam Adhikari said he favoured parliamentary hearing of the newly nominated Supreme Court justices and ambassadors by the existing Parliamentary Hearing Committee.

Adhikari said the deadlock over the two key provisions of the new Parliamentary Regulations could delay their formulation by almost a month, therefore, it would be wise to seek the service of the existing PHC to confirm or reject new nominees.

PRDC is divided over how many members should be there in the PHC and on what basis two thirds majority or simple majority should the PHC make decisions over the nominations?

The main dispute on the matter is between the ruling CPN-UML and the principal opposition Nepali Congress with the former favouring only a 15-member PHC as stated in the new constitution and the latter favouring 71-73-member PHC as was practised under the Interim Constitution.

Adhikari said lawmaker Kul Bahadur Gurung-led PHC was still active and the best thing would be to let it conduct its hearing from tomorrow. “There should be no delay in conducting hearing for the newly nominated SC justices and ambassadors.

If we wait for the new parliamentary regulations to be formulated, it could take a month even after we succeed to forge consensus,”

Adhiakri said, “Whatever we need to do, we should do through the existing PHC.”

Meanwhile, a meeting of the PRDC held at Singha Durbar today failed to take any decision on the two key issues. Another meeting was scheduled for May 2, a day before the new session of the Parliament begins.

Adhikari said the parties that represented the PRDC had told him that they wanted some time to hold dialogue with leadership of the parties to forge consensus on the thorny issues.

Adhikari said prime minister’s decision to withdraw the name of Ram Prasad Sitaula, who had been nominated as Judicial Council member, on the 34 days of his nomination, proved that the PM accepted the existence of the PHC.

Former vice-president of the Nepal Bar Association Tika Ram Bhattarai said if new 15-member PHC was formed that would respect the spirit of the constitution but if that was not possible and the parties agreed to use the old Parliamentary Regulations, then they should conduct business accordingly.

“Consensus among the parties is necessary to use the old Parliamentary Regulations,” Bhattarai said.

He added that although the old Parliamentary Regulations stated that if the PHC failed to act within 35 days of nomination there shall be no constraint to appoint the nominees (to the recommended posts), the best thing for the Parliament to do is to conduct parliamentary hearing for the nominees.

Bhattarai said constitution should not be a victim of partisan interests and the two major parties the NC and the UML should not engage in unnecessary rivalry.