KATHMANDU: The Constitutional Council headed by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has unanimously picked Supreme Court Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha as Chief Justice on the basis of seniority. Justice Shrestha will succeed incumbent Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma, who is due to retire on March 25. Shrestha is known as an honest justice. He has been a Supreme Court justice since 2003. Before that he was chief judge of an appellate court. The meeting was attended by all council members, but for leader of opposition Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Chief Justice Sharma, Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang, Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, Defence Minister Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Law Minister Prem Bahadur Singh were present in the meeting. “We told Prachanda about the agenda and took the decision with his consent,” Law Minister Prem Bahadur Singh said. The CJ nominee will have to go through the parliamentary hearing process. Shrestha began his professional career in 1970 as a section officer in a government ministry, and moved to the judicial service in 1975, to be appointed a district judge. He was promoted to the post of first class officer in 1982 and was promoted as the appellate court judge in 1990. In the past 35 years in the judiciary, the ‘cadre judge’ has built a reputation as a ‘traditional judge’. “He has served in many courts and has maintained integrity,” senior advocate Harihar Dahal opined. Another prominent advocate Hari Krishna Karki said he had been consistent in his verdicts. Shrestha was, however, dragged in a controversy over taking bribe in a land related case when he was chief judge in Pokhara Appellate Court. The lawyers had accused him of taking bribe. Shrestha recently submitted a report to Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma suggesting several reforms in the judiciary. The report added that 60 per cent corruption in judiciary would be removed if the judges clean up their act. He was also among the justices who scrapped controversial Royal Commission for Corruption Control formed by former king Gyanendra and issued orders to release leaders and cadres during the royal regime. His recent order to okay the promotion of Lt General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh kicked up a controversy. He recently blocked the controversial recruitment bid of NHRC , upholding equal opportunities for all qualified candidates. Talking to The Himalayan Times, Shrestha said he would uphold the rule of law, independent of judiciary and democratic principles.