No pressure on former chief justices to appear before House panel, says committee member
KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 15
Four former chief justices - Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha, Sushila Karki, and Min Bahadur Raymajhi - who were summoned by the impeachment recommendation committee today wrote a letter to the House panel objecting to its decision to summon them without gathering any evidence to support suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana's allegations against them. During impeachment hearing, Rana, who faces the impeachment motion, accused the four former chief justices of seeking spoils in judicial appointments and trying to unduly influence him.
The four former CJs said Rana should limit his testimony to his defence and should not accuse others. They said the House panel should also limit its jurisdiction to the assigned task of impeachment investigation without trying to expand its scope of investigation.
The four former CJs said Rana's accusation alone was not enough to summon them.
The four former CJs wanted to know when they attempted to influence Rana, on what issues, if such an attempt was made then who was the link person, what was the consequence of such an attempt, and what evidence was there to support these allegations. They said neither did the House panel seek evidence from Rana to prove his allegations against them nor did Rana submit any evidence.
The four former CJs said Rana, the accuser, should prove without any doubt when they had attempted to gain something improperly from him. They challenged Rana to prove if they ever tried to influence him through anybody or if they ever tried to gain any illegal benefits from him. The four former CJs asked the House panel to show courage to punish Rana for failing to prove his allegations against them. They said they were being targeted by Rana for the joint statement they had issued on 25 October 2021.
They said they decided not to appear before the House panel as their letter alone would be enough to satisfy the panel, which should consider it as their cooperation.
Meanwhile, the House panel recorded statements of seven lawyers, including former presidents of the Nepal Bar Association Chandeshor Shrestha, Shambhu Thapa, Harihar Dahal, Senior Advocate Raman Kumar Shrestha, President of Supreme Court Bar Association Purnaman Shakya, former General Secretary of NBA Lilamani Paudel, and advocate Om Prakash Aryal whom Rana had accused of witch-hunt.
Shakya told THT that lawyers submitted their clarifications and told the House panel that Rana, who was being questioned in the impeachment case, should not be allowed to defame others. They said if Rana levels accusations against lawyers, the House panel should give them an opportunity to cross-examine him. The House panel responded positively to the lawyers' demand that they be allowed to cross-examine Rana.
Aryal told THT that he refuted allegations made against him and demanded that he be allowed to cross-examine Rana. "Rana has levelled serious allegations against us and in all fairness we should be allowed to cross-examine him," Aryal said. He urged the panel to allow people named by Rana to seek legal remedy for character assassination.
Impeachment Recommendation Committee member Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said the panel would ask Rana supplementary questions. He said the panel had summoned former chief justices with the hope that their presence could help resolve problems facing the country's judiciary. "We did not intend to summon former CJs as accused. If they do not want to appear before the panel, we'll not pressure them," Pokharel added.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 16, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
