KATHMANDU, APRIL 19
A meeting of the Constitutional Council held today to nominate the new chief justice failed to do so due to divergence of views between the government and leader of Opposition KP Sharma Oli.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal proposed to nominate acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna for chief justice, but KP Sharma Oli neither supported the proposal nor objected to it. Hence, the meeting failed to nominate the new CJ.
A few days ago, Nepal Bar Association had submitted a memorandum urging the PM to take initiative to nominate the CJ. The judiciary has been headless for almost 14 months with senior most Justice Hari Krishna Karki working in the capacity of acting CJ all this time.
According to a CC office bearer, Oli first raised the issue of procedural gap saying that as per the rules, all members of the Constitutional Council should be notified 48 hours before the meeting, but he had received the notification only yesterday. Stating that the meeting was supposed to be convened on Friday, April 21, Oli wondered why the meeting was preponed. PM Dahal clarified this was because National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had to leave for Russia this evening. Oli also asked why the impeachment motion against then chief justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana was not resolved till now.
Deputy Speaker Indira Ranamagar said that under the existing rules, the first meeting of the CC on any agenda had to take a call on the basis of consensus, but office bearers of the CC could not forge consensus on the issue.
"As far as my participation in the CC is concerned, I am in favour of having the right person in the right place," she said and added that as far as she knew about the judiciary, Karki was the right candidate for the top job. "We have seen that seniority is often breached in the appointment of Inspector General of Police, but in the judiciary, it's a general rule that seniority is respected," she argued.
Nomination of new CJ is the first process in the appointment of CJ. The Parliamentary Hearing Committee confirms or rejects the CJ nominee, but at present the House of Representatives has not formed the PHC. This means until the PHC is formed, the CJ nominees' hearing cannot take place. As of today, candidates nominated by the CC have been confirmed by the PHC with one exception of Justice Deepak Raj Joshi, who was nominated by the CC for CJ, but was rejected by the PHC.
President of Nepal Bar Association Gopal Krishna Ghimire said the PM had put in effort to nominate the new CJ and they would wait for a few days before deciding on their next course of action.
CPN-UML Whip Mahesh Kumar Bartaula said his party wanted leadership of four out of 10 HoR committees. "It is a general rule that the leadership of the Public Accounts Committee goes to the main opposition party, so we have natural claim on the leadership of the PAC," he said and added that 'among the other nine committees, our party wants leadership of three committees as we are the second largest force in the HoR.' Bartaula said the Parliament belonged to all the parties and the parties should have their share in the parliamentary committees in accordance with their strength in the Parliament. If the ruling alliance decides to go by the rule of majority ignoring the UML's claim on leadership of the House panel, they can elect all panel chairs from among the lawmakers of their own parties but that could antagonise the UML.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
