KATHMANDU: Refusal of Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma to administer the oath of office and secrecy to Keshav Prasad Baral, commissioner, Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has dragged the formality into a controversy.

The commissioner has not been able to join office as a result. President Dr Ram Baran Yadav appointed Baral yesterday. CJ Sharma refused to undertake the task citing that chief CIAA commissioner, the post of whom lies vacant now, is supposed to do the same in the former's presence.

A highly placed apex court source told The Himalayan Times that the CJ refused the government's call to administer the oath to Baral. "The CJ cannot degrade in performing his office," the source quoted Sharma as saying.

Chief Secretary of the government, Madhav Prasad Ghimire yesterday met Sharma to urge him to facilitate the oath row. The CJ refused the plea outrightly citing legal hurdles in administering the oath to the Commissioner. As per a recent amendment to Act Relating to the Service Condition and Facilities of the Office Bearers of the Constitutional Bodies 1997, the power of the King has shifted to the President.

The Act has shifted the power to the President to administer the oath to constitutional body appointees as ceremonies organised in front of the King. The Act states that the CJ administer the oath to the Chief Commissioner in front of the President while that for other Commissioners be administered by the Chief Commissioner of the CIAA.

"After his appointment, we have been awaiting the oath ceremony and his joining office but we have not been informed," Dilli Raman Acharya, Joint Government Attorney, CIAA, said.

President Dr Yadav appointed him on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council on January 4, which preceded the approval of the parliamentary hearing committee.

The Constitutional body had selected former Inspector General of Police for the post of commissioner as all the posts have been lying vacant since January 4, when the Acting Chief Commissioner and Commissioner Beda Prasad Siwakoti got compulsory retirement.

Following their retirement, the anti-graft body has been virtually defunct since it has been unable to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.