JC recommends six names for chief justice

Kathmandu, June 13

The Judicial council today recommended six names for the vacant post of the Supreme Court chief justice, including that of Acting CJ Gopal Parajuli.

Apart from Parajuli, the JC recommended Deepak Raj Joshi, Om Prakash Mishra, Devendra Gopal Shrestha, Jagadish Sharma Paudel and Cholendra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana for the top SC post.

Retired chief justice Sushila Karki had also recommended six names for CJ but the JC did not endorse that recommendation. The Constitutional Council will recommend appointing the CJ from among the names recommended by the JC.

The president will appoint the CJ after the Parliamentary Special Committee approves the name recommended by the Constitutional Council.

Meanwhile, the JC meeting also decided to consider April 28, 1953, as date of birth of Acting CJ Parajuli as per the latest copy of his citizenship certificate. He would be CJ until April 28, 2018, if appointed.

Earlier, a petition was filed at the SC seeking to bar Justice Parajuli from becoming the chief justice.

Advocate Bikash Giri said he filed the petition at the apex court stating that Justice Parajuli’s date of birth was controversial and the status of his School Leaving Certificate was also not clear. The petitioner said a bulletin published by the Judicial Council stated Parajuli’s date of birth as January 4, 1953, but the citizenship certificate Parajuli received from Kathmandu district a few years ago mentions a different date of birth.

The petitioner also demanded that the controversy over Justice Parajuli’s date of birth be probed and that the Judicial Council make the retirement date of the justice public.