Kathmandu, March 8:

Minister for Local Development Tanka Dhakal today said he always respects the Supreme Court orders and never undermines the court’s judgments.

“Being a responsible minister in the government, I want to express my commitment to always go by the SC orders,” Dhakal said. “I have complete knowledge of the Constitution and hence respect the court orders. I have done nothing till date disrespecting the apex court orders and I will not go against its orders in the future as well,” he added.

The erstwhile minister for information and communication said this while submitting a written explanation before the apex court. He was present in person at the court to face a contempt of court charge against him.

On December 29, the Supreme Court had ordered Dhakal, Secretary of the Ministry Kumar Prasad Paudel and Under Secretary Ambaraj Paudel to present themselves before the court within 15 days.

Dhakal and the officials were accused of disrespecting the apex court order on Radio Sagarmatha case as the ministry had directed Radio Sagarmatha not to uplink BBC broadcasting even after the apex court issued a stay order allowing news broadcast. Advocate Ananda Santoshi Rai had filed the contempt of court case against Dhakal and other officials.

Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma had ordered him to attend before the apex court in person to face the charge. The minister, however, said he had no knowledge of the apex court stay order on Radio station and hence the ministry had gone ahead with its action.

The government had prevented the Radio station from uplinking the BBC news for few days even after the stay order. The SC had stayed the action of the government to shut down the station two days after the station was shut down when it had tried to broadcast an interview of Maoist leader Prachanda.