KATHMANDU: Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma headed Judicial Council (JC) today met to discuss the complaints pending before the Council against a number of judges of the Appellate Courts and District Courts.

After JC member Motikaji Sthapit submitted his preliminary report on the complaints against the judges, the constitutional body postponed its discussion for the next meeting.

"Basically the study report was a preliminary report and a basic inquiry on the gravity of the complaints. We will continue our discussion in the next meeting," CJ Sharma, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the JC, told reporters. "If we found gravity on any complaint against any judge we will definitely set up inquiry commission," he added. CJ Sharma, Law Minister Prem Bahadur Singh, senior justice Ram Prasad Shrestha, JC members Basudev Dhungana and Sthapit attended the meeting.

The CJ also noted that if they found serious complaints against anyone, the JC would suspend the concerned judges for investigation. It is learnt that out of the total 550 complaints, at least 70 complaints are pending before the JC post-1990.

"At least 23 judges of Appellate and District Courts were either sacked or forced to resign during the period but in relation to the 70 pending complaints, we have seriously been investigating," JC Secretary Jivan Hari Adhikary said. "The members of the JC take each copy of the preliminary report for study and if they found weightiness of the case, the next meeting will take decision whether or not to expedite the formal information to any judge," he added.