Kathmandu, May 20:

The Kathmandu District Court (KDC) today ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Kathmandu District Administration Office to pay Rs 70,000 each to Speaker Subas Nembang and chief whip of the CPN-UML Mahendra Bahadur Pandey as compensation for their illegal detention during the king’s direct rule.

A single bench of Judge Sushma Lata Mathema of the KDC today issued the verdict. “Money cannot compensate for an illegal detention. But the verdict has been issued to make the state responsible and accountable to the public,” the bench observed.

The royal government had arrested and detained Nembang on January 18, 2006 and released him on February 16, 2006. Pandey was detained on January 19, 2006 and released on February 17, 2006.

The two were detained under Public Peace and Security Act 1989. The bench was responding to separate petitions of the leaders.

As per Clause 12 of the Act, the court can compensate anyone taken into custody illegally and with mala fide intention. The court should provide compensation to the detainee, considering income of the person and his social and economic reputation.

The petitioners had moved the court last year demanding one lakh rupees in compensation for each of them. In the petitions, they claimed that it was just their attempt to make the state responsible to the public and not to detain the opponent political activists. “This is the first case that the court directed the authorities to compensate in such a highest amount to the petitioners under the Public Peace and Security Act,” advocate Tika Ram Bhattarai said. Bhattarai and advocate Ramesh Badal had pleaded on behalf of the leaders in the court.