KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 30
The General Assembly of Nepal Bar Association has passed a resolution calling on the stakeholders to amend the constitution to fix the tenure of Supreme Court Justices to seven years, not more.
Under the existing law, SC justices retire from service upon completion of 65 years of age. SC justices are appointed from among career judges and members of the bar.
NBA President Gopal Krishna Ghimire said the NBA General Assembly held in Surkhet passed a resolution yesterday keeping in mind the tendency among political parties to appoint junior lawyers as SC justices so as to allow them to serve for overly long period, sometimes allowing them to serve in the apex court for 16 to 17 years.
According to Ghimire, the recent tendency to appoint junior lawyers as SC justices has given rise to factionalism.
NBA General Secretary Anjita Khanal said the current appointment of SC justices was flawed as a result of which well-established senior advocates who could contribute to the development of jurisprudence could not get a chance to serve for fivesix years, and they tended to decline offer of judgeship in the apex court.
Ghimire said the current system of appointing SC justices had led to judicial anarchism with the political parties seeking to appoint their favourite lawyers who they think can deliver in their favour.
Ghimire said the NBA would try to get its decisions approved by the executive committee of the lawyers' umbrella body which would hold its meeting in the next three months. The NBA would continue to lobby political parties and leaders to amend the constitution to allow SC justices to serve for seven years.
Khanal said the Panchayat constitution of 1962 had provisioned six years tenure for SC justices.
Ghimire said those favouring long tenure of SC justices cited the American system where SC justices have lifetime appointments. "Our system is different. In the US, judges maintain professionalism by deciding against the person responsible for making their appointment. Can our judges be so courageous?" he wondered.
The NBA General Assembly also sought reversal of amendment made to Judicial Council Regulations that allowed the chief secretary of the judicial service who is appointed as judge of a high court to be placed in the second hierarchy after the chief judge of the concerned high court.
Similarly, the new amendment allowed secretary level employees of judicial service to be placed ahead of other high court judges in case such judges are appointed high court judges after the secretary level employee is appointed.
Khanal said that this new amendment was illogical as it would affect other high court judges whose seniority had been fixed earlier and now, they would be relegated to lower level in the hierarchy.
The NBA General Assembly also demanded that the Constitutional Bench conduct hearing everyday and not just one day in a week.
She said there were many cases, particularly filed by individuals that were pending for overly long period.
"We have seen that some cases where the government has huge interest have been adjudicated promptly, but cases where the public have interest, remain pending for years," Khanal said and added that election related petitions filed after 2017 elections were still pending before the constitutional bench.
NBA President Ghimire said the NBA was also in favour of removing the requirement of parliamentary hearing for SC justices. "We have seen that this system has led to a situation where SC justice nominees knock the door of politicians seeking their blessings," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 1, 2023, of The Himalayan Times
