One month after the ruling political parties – Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-(Unified Socialist) – filed an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, invoking Article 101 (2) of the constitution, Speaker Agni Sapkota said discussion on the motion would start from Wednesday. Since the filing of the motion, CJ Rana has been suspended and senior-most Justice Deepak Karki has taken charge as acting CJ. A total of 98 lawmakers of the ruling parties had registered the motion against Rana at the Parliament Secretariat on February 13. An impeachment motion filed against anyone must be passed by the House of Representatives (HoR) with a two-thirds majority. The motion must be settled within three months from the date of filing the impeachment motion. If the HoR fails to pass the motion within the deadline, CJ Rana will rejoin his office, which will be a big embarrassment to the ruling coalition, especially Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is said to have agreed to file the motion under pressure from the coalition partners.

The impeachment motion was filed against CJ Rana to save the HoR membership of 14 lawmakers of the CPN-US, a political outfit that was formed through an ordinance, which was later revoked.

Dev Gurung, Chief Whip of the CPN-MC, sought a debate on the motion at Sunday's meeting of the HoR, alleging, among others, that Rana failed to uphold democracy, human rights, rule of law, independence of the Judiciary and that he had sought power-sharing with the executive. CJ Rana's brother-in-law, Gajendra Bahadur Hamal, was appointed the commerce minister in the Deuba cabinet, but he had to quit due to public criticism.

Reading out the 21-point allegations, Gurung also said Rana promoted corruption, anomalies, and aberration and factionalism within the Judiciary. Earlier, the Nepal Bar Association had sought Rana's ouster and urged the political parties to impeach him. Other justices of the court had also refused to share benches with Rana.

The impeachment motion against CJ Rana will not be passed unless the main opposition, CPN-UML, cooperates with it. The UML has already made it clear that it would not support the motion unless the HoR membership of 14 lawmakers, who are now associated with the CPN-US, was terminated as per the House rules. The apex court has set April 3 as the date for hearing the case to this effect. The UML has been obstructing the House proceedings for the last six months, accusing the Speaker of bias over this issue.

PM Deuba's coalition government is sure to fall if the apex court gives its verdict in favour of the UML. In case the court's verdict goes in favour of the CPN-US, a breakaway faction of the UML, the main opposition might immediately file another impeachment motion against acting Chief Justice Karki and three other justices, who ordered the President to appoint Deuba as the PM through their mandamus order on July 12. The UML is learnt to have readied the signatures of its lawmakers to file an impeachment motion against Karki and others at an opportune time.

Whatever the outcome of the impeachment motion against CJ Rana, Nepal's Judiciary will suffer the most due to its own wrong-doings.

Fare revision

With the Russia-Ukraine war in its third week, market prices are starting to spiral out of control, especially those of foodstuffs. For a country heavily dependent on imports for all its needs, this was only to be expected as prices of fuel, metals and cereals have gone up in the world market following sanctions on Russia by the big powers. The price of fuel, except that of cooking gas, has been revised by the government in quick succession in recent times, but still Nepal Oil Corporation, the sole government entity importing and distributing fuel in the country, has been running losses amounting to billions of rupees almost every week.

With the increased fuel prices, it is only logical that the transport entrepreneurs should demand a revision of the transport fares. The transport fares were last adjusted on October 13 last year when diesel was selling for Rs 104 a litre, which has now gone up to Rs 133. Any revision now will hurt the consumers badly, while the government has no option other than to yield to pressure from the entrepreneurs by next week. It is apparent that the government cannot keep subsidising fuel for long. The only way to cushion a steep revision in the fares is to slash the heavy taxes on fuel.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 15, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.