Kathmandu, October 27:

Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel today urged the government to implement Supreme Court directives on Public Interest Litigations seriously.

“Though directives are not supposed to be implemented immediately as mandamus orders, they should be implemented at appropriate times,” said Paudel. The Chief Justice’s remarks came a day after a bench seriously objected to the government’s failure to implement court verdicts on PILs. The Chief Justice said: “We have been doing serious homework to find out why court orders are not implemented.”

He was speaking at a programme organised by the National Judicial Academy (NJA) where a book titled ‘Laingik Nayaya’ and a report on non-implementation of court orders were released.

The CJ also called on the House of Representatives to pass a bill on National Judicial Academy without making any changes to the one already introduced in the parliament. He added that the tenure of the ordinance has already expired so that there is an urgent need to pass the bill as soon as possible.

Supreme Court Justice Min Bahadur Rayamajhi said: “It is shameful to say that the Supreme Court orders are not implemented. It should be found out who is responsible for the non-implementation of the verdicts.”

Rayamajhi said some verdicts might take time for implementation by nature if they are related to promulgation of laws but the orders must be implemented. He added that there was a need to set up a mechanism to carry out follow-up of the verdicts regularly.

According to a Supreme Court figure, less than 19 per cent of the verdicts related to PIL are implemented. Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade said the Supreme Court verdicts could not be implemented due to lack of a mechanism to carry out follow-up.

He stressed the need for cooperation among the government, courts, and the office of the Attorney General. Secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Kul Ratna Bhurtel, and secretary at the Nepal Law Reforms Commission Mohan Banjade expressed readiness to cooperate other stakeholders in the implementation of court orders.

SC Registrar Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena, however, said PIL cases should be screened properly, “as acceptance of all kinds of cases as PILs have unnecessarily increased the apex court’s workload”.