Kathmandu, April 16

Senior advocates Shambhu Thapa and Purna Rajbansi have criticised the roles of the Judicial Council and Parliamentary Hearing Committee respectively on the appointment and hearing process of the chairs of constitutional commissions, Supreme Court justices and High Court judges.

Thapa and Rajbansi jointly lodged a complaint against Advocate Manoj Kumar  Sharma, one of five justices nominated by the Judicial  Council, saying that Sharma didn’t have the required experience for the post.

“According to the rule, to be a nominee for Supreme Court justice, one must have 15 years work experience in the legal field or should have

at least five years of experience as high court judge,” reads the written complaint.

The  Judicial Council meeting on April 2 nominated Sharma as well as Patan  High Court Chief Judge Prakash Kumar Dhungana, Surkhet High Court Chief  Judge Sushma Lata Mathema, Senior Advocate Kumar Regmi and former attorney general Hari Prasad Phuyal as justices of the Supreme  Court. On the same day, the JC also appointed High Court judges.

The  PHC today opened complaints registered by the public against the nomination of justices by the JC and nomination of Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya and member of Inclusive Commission Bishnu  Maya Oja by the Constitutional Council.

Thapa and Rajbansi, in their complaint, also questioned the Parliamentary Hearing Committee’s role in the appointment of the chief commissioner of Muslim Commission. Samim Miya Ansari was appointed as the chief commissioner by the president after the PHC’s failure to take any decision on his appointment even after 45 days of the parliamentary hearing process.  Thapa and Rajbansi have also asked the PHC to come up with open hearing system, which allows the people to hear all the discussions.

Moreover, people have lodged complaints against Phuyal and Dhungana too. A person has accused Phuyal of trying to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court on a land-related case in Chitwan by producing fake documents. Similarly, Dhungana has also been accused of exerting unnecessary pressure on his junior staff when he was the registrar of Patan High  Court.