Pokhara, June 8

Gandaki Province Internal Affairs and Law Minister Hari Bahadur Chuman has expressed his concern about the judiciary taking a long time to adapt itself to the federal system.

Chuman said the central government was the biggest hurdle towards implementation of federalism and urged it to do everything it took to protect the system, achieved after a long struggle and sacrifice.

“Nepal Bar has adapted itself to the federal structure, but the judiciary has failed to do so, which is sad. The judiciary should take this matter seriously,” said the minister, speaking at a consultation meeting held by Nepal Bar Association, here today.

“India’s is a quasi-federal system, unlike Nepal. But the plight of Nepal is that its central government is not willing to delegate even as much of the power enjoyed by the provinces and local governments in India, which is unfortunate,” said the minister.

“Though the province is free to bring its own province police act, apparently the centre is trying to keep provinces under its control, in our case,” explained the minister.

Chuman expressed his concerns about the lack of awareness among the public, mainly the grassroots, about the law and sought the attention of legal professionals to raise the awareness level of people.

“It is true that we didn’t consult legal professionals while codifying provincial law, but the provincial government is ready to move ahead by cooperating with you if required,” he told law professionals.

NBA Chairperson Chandeshwor Shrestha also spoke on the occasion and expressed his dissatisfaction with irregularities in the appointments of judges.

“There were some irregularities during appointment of judges while we were busy holding NBA elections. I hereby urge the Judicial Council not to repeat such practice in the future,” he said.

Shrestha said a judiciary without the Bar could not be imagined and added that he was committed to developing the Bar as an organisation of pride for all law professionals. “As there are complaints of corruption in the judiciary, we’re preparing to set up complaint boxes at the courts, and we’ve started the campaign from Parbat district,” he said.