Kathmandu, February 19 Senior-most Justice of the Supreme Court Deepak Raj Joshee, who was not assigned any case by new Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, resigned from his post today. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari accepted his resignation, which Joshee had sent to the president through the Supreme Court. Joshee told THT that he stated in his resignation letter that he had been facing difficulties in shouldering responsibility placed on him by law and hence it was meaningless for him to continue to remain as a justice of the Supreme Court. “First I was deprived of the opportunity to adjudicate cases and later of my chamber in the SC. I had no place to sit in the SC. Being a senior-most justice of the SC, I was an ex-officio member of the Judicial Council, but lately I was not even called for the JC meetings,” he said and added that CJ Rana did not call him to the press conference organised on the day the former assumed office. Justice Joshee was to retire from service on October 10. Joshee, who was rejected for the post of chief justice on August 3 last year by the Parliamentary Hearing Committee, continued to work as a justice but new CJ Rana stopped assigning him cases from January 2. Joshee was the first CJ nominee to be rejected by the parliamentary panel. Some Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmakers had argued that Joshee should resign on moral grounds as he was rejected by the PHC for CJ. Joshee had argued that PHC rejection posed no legal question on his ability and eligibility to work as a justice of SC for which he had already been endorsed by the PHC. In December, Justice Joshee passed an interim order allowing businessperson Ajeya Raj Sumargi led Mukti Shree Cement Industries Ltd to withdraw millions of rupees parked in a bank. Later his order was overturned by a division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai. Joshee had served as the acting chief justice from 19 March 2018 to 4 August 2018 when the post remained vacant after incumbent CJ Gopal Parajuli lost his job due to the Judicial Council’s letter that informed Parajuli that he had reached retirement age on 5 August, 2017. Justice Joshee was appointed SC justice in 2014. He was first appointed as an appellate court judge in 1991.