KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 9

Fifteen Supreme Court justices boycotted their benches today after Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana listed cases other than habeas corpus writ petitions in the cause list. Only two justices - Tej Bahadur KC and Manoj Kumar Sharma - who shared the bench heard the only habeas corpus writ petition.

CJ Rana had listed some other cases also for the hearing, but the Supreme Court website stated that the division bench of Justices KC and Sharma did not have enough time to hear them.

Fifteen justices boycotted the bench as the CJ listed cases other than habeas corpus petitions for hearing which dissident justices viewed as a violation of their understanding with Rana.

Dissident justices had said that they would not conduct any hearing if the CJ listed cases other than habeas corpus petitions in the cause list. The CJ had been abiding by the understanding by listing only habeas corpus writ petitions and had also not formed his own bench, but today he departed from the earlier understating.

He assigned cases to himself and conducted hearing for those cases.

President of the Nepal Bar Association Chandeshwor Shrestha said the lawyers' umbrella association would continue protesting against the CJ and would also call upon bar units of Kathmandu valley to protest against Rana. He said dissident justices were united in their fight against the CJ.

Shrestha said since justices KC and Sharma heard only the habeas corpus petition they were also with other dissident justices. Habeas corpus writ petitions are dealt with urgency by all courts as such cases involve the question of illegal detention of people.

Shrestha said the NBA would also submit memorandum to political party leaders and urge them to speak up on the current issues plaguing the judiciary. 'Political parties should not keep mum when justices are agitating against the CJ,' he said.

The NBA, the Supreme Court Bar Association, and dissident justices of the Supreme Court have sought Rana's resignation accusing him of seeking to appoint his brother-in-law as a minister in the Deuba Cabinet and delaying hearings of cases field against appointments to the constitutional bodies.

Shrestha accused Rana of being the head of middlemen.

'Chief Justice Rana recently said at a public forum that the recommendations of the Justice Hari Krishna Karki-led committee could not be implemented.

Execution of this committee's report will end shenanigans of middlemen who are indulging in corrupt practices, but Chief Justice Rana refuses to implement it.

That means he is protecting middlemen who unfairly influence justice delivery process,'

Shrestha said. Senior Advocate Shambhu Thapa said bar associations should intensify their protests against Rana to force him to quit.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 10, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.