Kathmandu, August 3:

Legal experts including former Justice of the Supreme Court, Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, today labelled the appointment of Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel under Article 127 of the Constitution as unconstitutional.

The experts’ reaction came after the Chief Justice Paudel himself claimed that neither his appointment was extra-onstitutional nor was it an amendment of the Constitution.

“It is absolutely against the spirit of the Constitution to appoint a Chief Justice by invoking Article 127,” said former judge Rayamajhi. “It was an unconstitutional assignment to the retired Chief Justice Hari Prasad Sharma to chair the meeting of the Constitutional Council. Properly, it was the purview of an elected PM,” he said.

Rayamajhi was speaking at a programme on “Invocation of Article 127: Theory and Practice” organised by the Professional Skill Promotion Committee of Appellate Court Bar Association, Patan. He added that the invocation of Article 127 while sacking Sher Bahdur Deuba, appointing prime ministers and formation of the Royal Commission for Corruption Control was unconstitutional.

Law Minister of the interim government that drafted the 1990 Constitution, Nilambar Acharya, said that it was a fraud against the Constitution to invoke Article 127 while appointing a Chief Justice. He also said it was unconstitutional to use Article 127 without advice by the Prime Minister or by the cabinet.

Former Law Minister, Subash Chandra Nembang, labelled the invocation as an amendment to the statute. Senior advocates Radheshyam Adhikary and Shreehari Aryal argued the King had invoked Article 127 against democracy and the spirit of the Constitution. “The use of Article 127 after October 4, 2004, is a taint,” they said.