KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 13
The Impeachment Recommendation Committee of the House of Representatives will summon people named by suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana during his testimony before the panel.
This means that the impeachment hearing panel could summon office bearers of the Nepal Bar Association, former chief justices, judges, advocates, and politicians mentioned before the panel.
During his questioning, Rana said former judges, incumbent judges, and NBA officials launched a witch-hunt against him and as a result of hostile environment against him in the judiciary, an impeachment motion was filed against him.
Nepali Congress lawmaker Min Bahadur Bishwakarma, a member of the impeachment hearing panel, told THT that the committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow would take a call on who it should summon for testimony.
When asked if the panel would summon judges and NBA officials, he said, "We will decide on the people to be summoned keeping in mind the official responsibility they are shouldering."
Bishwakarma said they planned to submit their report to the speaker before September 18 and would accelerate the pace of their work.
Asked what the fate of the impeachment motion would be if the Election Commission's argument that the tenure of the HoR should end a day before the filing of candidacies for elections (September 17), Bishwakarma said impeachment motion was about allegations against Rana and investigation or proceedings should not end just because an office remained close for some days or weeks.
"If the impeachment motion cannot be concluded in the current HoR, it should be referred to the next HoR to be formed after November 20 elections," he added.
The Impeachment Recommendation Committee concluded questioning Rana today and decided to ask him supplementary questions after he signs his statement.
Appearing before the House panel today, Rana said he had committed no wrongdoing and he was implicated mainly because of the Supreme Court's verdict in the two cases of dissolution of the House of Representatives, particularly the last case which was decided by the apex court on 12 July 2021.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 14, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
