Kathmandu, July 11

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee of the Legislature Parliament today opened up complaints against 11 nominees for the Supreme Court justice.

The PHSC distributed the complaints to the panel members to study. The panel will decide about the complaints after holding discussions at tomorrow’s meeting, according to the panel’s Secretary Dhruba Prasad Ghimire.

Actual hearing will most likely begin from Wednesday or Thursday and it will take around three days to complete the hearing of the 11 nominees, according to him.

The Judicial Council, on March 1, had recommended Dipak Karki, Kedar Chalise, Sarada Prasad Ghimire, Meera Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Shrestha, Ishwar Khatiwada, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha, Prakash Raut and Sapana Pradhan Malla for SC justices.

Among the 11 nominees, seven are sitting chief judges of the appellate court and four are senior advocates Hari Krishna Karki, Prakash Raut, Anil Kumar Sinha and Sapana Pradhan Malla. Meanwhile, the PHSC has received three complaints against Malla and Khatiwada, according to PHSC sources.

Since Malla became Constituent Assembly member from CPN-UML, she would have political inclinations towards the party and thus she would not be eligible for the post of SC justice, stated a complaint. Another complaint accused Khatiwada of giving verdict in support of a perpetrator in a case relating to battery, said the source.

Some other complaints are about the working procedure of the PHSC and the nomination process, according to Ghimire.