Kathmandu, March 13

Eight Supreme Court justices have decided to boycott court hearings, stating that Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli did not agree to stay away from adjudication as per their suggestion.

The eight justices — Hari Krishna Karki, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Ishwor Khatiwada, Vishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Dipak Raj Joshi and Prakash Singh Raut — did not take part in any of the hearings today.

Chief Justice Parajuli had fixed 11 hearings for today, but none of them involved Justice Cholendra Shamsher JB Rana.

Yesterday, Justice Rana had boycotted the seven-member extended full bench, stating that CJ Parajuli should have retired on August 5, 2017, throwing the Supreme Court into a turmoil and prompting several justices to ‘advise’ Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli to step down.

Justice Rana, one of the seven justices on the extended full bench assigned to hear the contempt of court cases against Dr Govinda KC and Kantipur daily’s managers and journalists, boycotted the bench, stating that Chief Justice Parajuli should have retired on August 5, 2017, on the basis of his age. The bench did not hear the two cases and it is not clear when the next hearing will be scheduled.

Before the seven-member bench could start hearing yesterday, Rana read out a statement in front of the justices, claiming that Chief Justice Parajuli was supposed to retire on August 5, 2017, and it would be against moral principles and legal provisions to sit on the bench formed by him.

Meanwhile, the chief justice met Prime Minister KP Oli today in Baluwatar. However, it is not clear what transpired in the meeting.