Kathmandu, December 26:

The government had prepared the criminal and civil codes six years ago and the country witnessed six Attorney Generals since then. But the government seems least bothered to endorse these codes from the parliament to give them the status of Acts.

“There is an urgent need to promulgate the codes as Acts,” Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade told this daily today.

“These codes have suggested reforms in justice sector,” he said, adding that the codes were meant to address the challenges posed by the development in science and technology sector in investigating and delivering justice in criminal and civil cases.

The codes were prepared by former Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki six year ago with the help of UN’s Strengthening the Rule of Law and Reforms in the Judiciary programme.

The criminal code codified all criminal laws existing in the country and so did the civil codes. Similarly, separate criminal and civil procedural codes were also prepared to guide the procedures to be followed in any criminal or civil case in a court of law.

After Karki’s tenure, Prem Bahadur Bista, Sushil Panta, Mahadev Yadav, Laxmi Bahadur Nirala and Pawan Kumar Ojha served as country’s Attorney General before Banjade took charge of the office after the Jana Andolan II.

All of them suggested for promulgating the codes, but none did anything concrete for the same.

Similar codes were prepared in 1972 by the Law Reform Commission but they were never

promulgated.

In his recent annual report, Banjade too suggested the government to implement the codes. He hoped that the promulgation and implementation of the codes will address the current lapses in the justice sector and help bring the criminals to the book.

Banjade also said the codes will also address the issues of witness protection.