KATHMANDU: The Judicial Council today wrote a letter to Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli, stating that he was no more the chief justice, as he had reached the retirement age last year.

JC Secretary Nrip Dhwaj Niraula took a decision to this effect and wrote to Parajuli, stating that he had reached his retirement age of 65 years on August 5, 2017. “As per the details of your citizenship certificate, academic qualification, sheet-roll details and a letter dispatched today by the Office of the Controller of Examinations, Bhaktapur, you had reached retirement age on August 5, 2017," the JC stated in its letter.

Carbon copies of the letter were sent to the Office of the President, the Constitutional Council, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Department of Civil Personnel Records, Employees Provident Fund, Citizens Investment Trust, the senior-most justice of SC Deepak Raj Joshi, and JC members Padam Prasad Baidik and Ram Prasad Sitaula. The Judicial Council’s decision comes in the backdrop of the boycott of hearings for the second day today by eight SC justices.

Parajuli, who headed a seven-member extended full bench to hear the contempt of court cases against managers and journalists of Kantipur daily and Dr Govinda KC, faced opposition from fellow Justice Cholendra Shamsher JB Rana.

On Tuesday, before the extended full bench could start hearing the contempt of court case against Kantipur and Dr KC, Justice Rana entered the bench and read out his statement saying that he was boycotting the bench because he did not want to sit on the bench formed by Parajuli who should have retired on August 5, 2017.

Rana alleged that Parajuli had multiple dates of birth and as per legal provisions, August 5, 2017, should be validated as his date of birth.

The same day some justices advised Parajuli to step down in the face of the controversy.

Parajuli, meanwhile, did not assign any case to Justice Rana today as well as yesterday.

Today the CJ assigned cases to justices Hari Krishna Karki, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Ishwar Khatiwada, Bishwambhar Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Deepak Raj Joshi and Prakash Man Singh Raut, who had boycotted hearings yesterday and continued to boycott benches today as well.

(UPDATED)

Judicial Council sends letter of removal to CJ Parajuli

KATHMANDU: The Judicial Council has sent a removal letter to Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli on Wednesday, citing inconsistencies in the birth dates as mentioned in his citizenship and academic certificates.

Secretary of the Council Nrip Dhwaj Niraula has stated in the letter that Parajuli should have retired on August 5, 2017 on the basis of the certificate submitted during assumption of service. According to the secretariat letter, Parajuli has, thus, retired from his service, as per the secretary level decision taken on March 14.

However, it is uncertain if Parajuli has personally acknowledged the letter, given that he was administering oath of office to President Bidya Devi Bhandari, who was re-elected into the new term of office on Tuesday, at Sheetal Niwas.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Controller of Exams (OCE) has issued a letter to the Judicial Council, according to which Parajuli's date of birth has been established as 2011/01/03.

As per the latest developments, if the OCE letter is to be taken into consideration, Parajuli still has 13 months remaining to serve as the CJ.