KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 12

The Nepal Bar Association and lawyers practising in Kathmandu valley staged a sit-in at the main entrance of the Supreme Court to prevent Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana from entering the apex court.

Protesting lawyers who have been demanding CJ Rana's resignation for allegedly seeking to get his brother-in-law appointed a minister in the Sher Bahadur Deuba's Cabinet and delaying the hearing of the cases filed against appointments made to the constitutional bodies, staged a sitin in front of the SC from 10:00am to 12:00pm.

They had planned to stage the sit-in on the apex court premises, but since the SC administration locked the entrance, they had to stage the protest on the street in front of the entrance.

Armed Police Force personnel were deployed on the court premises, but they were later withdrawn after lawyers objected to their deployment.

CJ Rana, however, entered the SC from the door near the Attorney General's Office and formed benches after assigning cases to the benches. He didn't assign any case to himself.

Dissident justices continued their protest today boycotting the benches.

Senior advocates Harihar Dahal, Shambhu Thapa, Surendra Kumar Mahto, and Advocate Bijay Mishra addressed protesting lawyers in a corner meeting. Mahto said Rana had blurred the red line between the judiciary and the executive and his resignation was the only way out to rid the judiciary of its anomalies. He said the NBA would continue its protest until the CJ resigned from his post. Meanwhile, justices didn't conduct any hearing today, not even of habeas corpus petitions.

The NBA will continue its protest on Sunday.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 13, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.