KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court today sought explanation from the government authorities over the tenure extension of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Nepal.

A single bench of Justice Prem Sharma issued the notice following today’s hearing. The bench also directed the authorities — Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet, Legislature Parliament, Chairman of the NHRC, Minister of Law and Justice, Foreign Minister and the Secretariat of the Constituent Assembly — to attend the court within seven days for the discussion on whether or not to issue stay order on the issue.

The bench also told the authorities to furnish explanation within 15 days as to why the OHCHR tenure was extended.

Stating that the government authorities do not have authority to extend the tenure of the OHCHR Nepal, without the approval of the Legislature Parliament, advocate Achyut Prasad Kharel moved the apex court on Friday. The petitioner accused that the government of extending the tenure of the UN body till June 9, 2010 unconstitutionally and sought the stay order.

The petitioner also sought certiorari order against the status of the UN body not to provide the status of the party of the treaty.

Meanwhile, the apex court also sought the explanation from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over the disappearance and killing of one Padam Narayan Nakarmi, who was mysteriously disappeared from Bhairavnath Battalion of Nepali Army during insurgency.

A division bench of Justices Anup Raj Sharma and Bharat Raj Upreti issued the order. The OHCHR, Nepal had accused the Bhairavnath Battalion of disappearing Nakarmi and the 48 other detainees from the barracks.

The victim’s mother Ram Maya Nakarmi moved the apex court seeking action against the accused for making her son disappeared.

Apex court upholds Arun-III project tender

KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court today upheld the Sutlej Power Company’s tender in the construction of Arun-III hydro-electricity project.

A division bench of Justices Bala Ram KC and Krishna Prasad Updhayaya upheld the decision of providing the tender to the Sutlej Company. “Sine there were no element of malafide intention while providing the tender to the Sutlej Power Company and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority also hadn’t initiated any probe and since there were no question of violation of law of the Nepal Electricity Act and the Water Resources Act, there was no need of the apex court intervention,” the bench observed. The bench scrapped the writ petition filed by Jindal Steel and Power Limited which had accused the government authorities of approving the bidding of the Sutlej even as it was the right bidder for winning the bid for the construction of the Arjun-III hydropower project. — HNS