KATHMANDU, APRIL 29

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed the proprietors of sidhakura.com news portal to appear at the apex court at 10:00 am on May 2 along with evidence regarding whether they should be charged with contempt of court over a recent online news report.

A bench of SC Justices Nahakul Subedi and Tek Prasad Dhungana issued this order in the name of the news portal's publisher, Yubraj Kandel, and executive editor, Nabin Dhungana, on a charge of contempt of court.

The online news portal on April 26 published a report claiming the involvement of SC justices in dismissing over 400 corruption-related cases.

The SC ordered the deletion of the news within 24 hours and prohibited the production, publication, or republishing of any similar content until a final decision is made on the matter.

Instructing the media not to broadcast the deleted content, the bench directed the SC Registrar to issue a public notice and inform the Press Council Nepal and Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) for implementation.

Additionally, the SC decided that a detailed investigation into the facts and technical aspects raised in the audio-visual materials should be conducted. It further directed appropriate legal action to be taken after the investigations if any wrongdoing is found involving violations of criminal laws.

Earlier, SC's assistant registrar Govinda Prasad Ghimire submitted a report on the issue to the SC bench on Sunday, requesting maximum punishment for publisher Kandel and executive editor Dhungana for contempt of court.