KATHMANDU: In order to ensure the general public's easy access to justice, the government has begun groundwork so as to decentralise the Supreme Court authority to the appellate and district courts.

The Ministry of Law and Justice (MoLJ) forwarded a bill yesterday to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in order to introduce a legal provision to expand the jurisdiction of the appellate and district courts.

"As per the new provision, appellate courts shall exercise writ jurisdiction and the district courts shall exercise the extraordinary power partially," said Madhav Paudel, secretary, MoLJ.

The appellate courts shall exercise the jurisdiction on habeas corpus, certiorari, mandamus, prohibition, and quo warranto. The same has currently been exercising only by the Supreme Court. However, district courts exercise only two writ orders — habeas corpus and probation — under the new legal arrangement.

Overall extraordinary authority of the apex court depends on the writ orders. The apex court has been exercising the authority to rescue people from illegal detention through habeas corpus order and to annul and prohibit the government authorities from taking illegal and unconstitutional decisions through the other writ orders.

The MoLJ had forwarded the bill — Some Nepal Law Amendment Bill, 2009 — to the authorities concerned to amend Section 7 and 23 of the Judicial Administration Act, 1991, and to introduce the new provision.

"This will be a drastic change of our judicial system," Paudel said, adding, "This has been done keeping in mind the restructuring of the state.

Paudel also said that such a provision would make the appellate courts powerful at par with the Indian High Courts to ensure the rights of the people.

Bala Ram KC, justice, Supreme Court, welcomed the move of the government stating that this might ensure the people's access to justice. "However, while exercising such authority, the lower court judges must be accountable with the recent trends and jurisprudence."

The Supreme Court, based on the report of justice Khil Raj Regmi, had issued a green signal to the government to expand the lower court jurisdiction with the extraordinary power like that of the apex court last year.

The apex court had rejected the offer of the then government to expand the extraordinary jurisdiction of the apex court in 1991. Then, the apex court justices had blocked the government's move stating that the lower court judges were not familiar with such power exercise.

Professor Purna Man Shakya, who is also a constitutional lawyer, however, objected to it saying that the ministry forwarded the proposal to the Cabinet without consulting the stakeholders — Nepal Bar Association, Office of the Attorney General.

"Decentralising the apex court’s authority is a serious and sensitive issue. Therefore, planning of the resource and human resource management are a must before introducing such legal provision," said Shakya.