Kathmandu, January 15:

Legal practitioners today opposed the government’s plan to expand the benches of the Supreme Court to Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. They also questioned the government’s motive behind the plan.

Stating that the plan was against the independence of the judiciary, the legal practitioners accused the government of attacking the independent judiciary by introducing the plan through the budget speech.

“The SC’s bench cannot be expanded to any place under a separate roof,” senior advocate Sindhu Nath Pyakurel said.

He said the Supreme Court is the apex court by its name, nature and function;

and there can be only one apex court and that cannot be divided into many.

Pyakurel was advising the Supreme Court Bar Association on whether it should suggest the panel formed by the government under the coordination of SC Justice Khil Raj Regmi to recommend the government in favour or against the plan.

Former Attorney General Sarvagya Ratna Tuladhar expressed his dissatisfaction at the apex court’s silence over what he called the government’s attack on the independence of the judiciary. “A similar plan was failed even during the Panchayat regime. How can this government bring such a plan now?” he questioned.

Stating that nowhere in the world is the trend of expansion of SC bench, former president of the Nepal Bar Association Harihar Dahal opposed the expansion plan. “This is related to political structure and without deciding the state structure, the bench expansion would be meaningless,” he added.

Former Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade said a similar plan had failed before 1970 and it would be suitable if the government did not make any bid to repeat the same move again.

Chairman of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum Tikaram Bhattarai opposed the appointment of Justice Regmi as the coordinator of the panel as unconstitutional.

“How can he be nominated in the panel without the approval of the Judicial Council?” Bhattarai asked.

He claimed that the government’s motive behind the plan was to control the judiciary.