Six-and-a-half months after 98 lawmakers of the ruling coalition partners in the House of Representatives (HoR) filed an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana on charges of failing to maintain sanctity of the Judiciary on February 13, suspended Rana appeared Wednesday before the 15-member Impeachment Recommendation Committee, where he said he was the 'victim' of some coalition leaders, Supreme Court colleagues and some members of the Nepal Bar Association and apex court Bar Association.

While filing the impeachment motion against Rana, the lawmakers from the ruling coalition had alleged that he failed to uphold the rule of law, protect democracy, sanctity of Judiciary and sought quid pro quo to appoint his brother-in-law Gajendra Hamal as minister for delivering verdict in favour of Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was later appointed Prime Minister on July 12 last year through a mandamus order. While furnishing replies to the committee, Rana said the impeachment motion was filed against him after he turned down the proposal of coalition leaders to make senior-most justice Deepak Kumar Karki as Chief Justice and, the motion was filed against him one week before his bench was about to deliver verdicts on Lalita Niwas land grab scandal involving former prime minister duo Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai and a case involving the expulsion of 14 CPN- UML lawmakers, who had defected to form CPN-United Socialist party led by Nepal.

He also accused acting justice Karki, justice duo Hari Krishna Karki and Prakashman Singh Raut of hatching conspiracy against him to serve their vested interest. He also accused then Nepal Bar Association chairman Chandeshwor Shrestha, general secretary Lilamani Poudel Supreme Court Bar chairman Purnaman Shakya of seeking appointments in the apex court and high court as well as seeking a favour from him in a high profile case. He also spilled the beans that the constitutional bench had delivered the verdict in favour of Deuba and 146 lawmakers, who were present before the court demanding Deuba be appointed as PM, after the coalition leaders manipulated the justices. These are the serious allegations levelled by Rana against the coalition leaders, justices and lawyers.

The Impeachment Recommendation Committee has been given three months to complete a chargesheet against Rana. However, the tenure of the current HoR will end after the close list of proportional representation (PR) for the November 20 election is submitted on September 17. It is unlikely that the committee will be able to complete its charge-sheet against Rana within the next 15 days. The committee should have started its work within seven days of filing the impeachment motion. Neither the coalition partners have two-thirds majority required to pass the impeachment motion. What is clear is that the motion was filed only to suspend Rana from office so that the vested interests of the coalition leaders, Supreme Court justices and some lawyers could be served. It is also unlikely that the impeachment motion against Rana would be taken up by the next HoR as he would retire in November due to age limit.

Prevent child abuse

Sexual abuse of children is rampant in Nepal despite being urged by child activists and experts to curb this problem which leaves behind an indelible scar on the psychosocial wellbeing of the abused.

The long-term impact of this evil has a damaging effect on the victim as it causes trauma and results in erratic mental development. It is unfortunate that children are abused at homes, childcare centres and even in schools. Children are being exploited and abused despite the government's tall promises to end the evil practice.

In addition to what the government has done to prevent it, all agencies devoted to the elimination of child abuse must unite. It is clear that a part of the problem lies in the failure to expose and punish the perpetrators as the victims themselves tend to remain silent. They would rather suffer fearing ostracism and other discriminations from society. This makes the issue all the more serious. Lack of awareness and financial needs have long been associated with sexual abuse. While efforts to check sexual and other abuses must be pursued with increased vigour, there is also a need for a mechanism to address the psychosocial problems of those abused. Children need to be encouraged to speak out.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 2, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.