JC’s decision to nominate SC justices upheld

Kathmandu, March 20

The Supreme Court today quashed a writ petition filed against the Judicial Council’s decision to nominate 11 Supreme Court justices.

The JC had nominated 11 new SC justices on March 1.

Advocate Bijay Singh Sijapati had filed the petition saying that the decision to nominate 11 new SC justices was taken by the JC when it was an incomplete body.

Sijapati had stated in the petition that since there were only three ex-officio members in the JC, who took the decision to nominate 11 new SC Justices, it was against the spirit of the law.

He had also argued that the JC’s decision to nominate 11 new SC justices was wrong, as there was no Parliamentary Hearing Committee and Parliamentary Regulations.

The petitioner had also stated that as per the new constitution, new justices of the Supreme Court should be appointed from among the high court judges but the JC nominated justices from among the judges of the appellate courts as high courts had not been formed yet.

Nepal Bar Association and the Prime Minister are yet to nominate their representatives in the five-member JC.

The writ petition was quashed by a single bench of Justice Jagadish Sharma Paudel.

The SC had issued an interim order in the name of the Speaker and the Parliament Secretariat a few days ago telling them to do the needful to conduct hearing for the newly nominated SC justices.

The newly nominated justices of the Supreme Court are Dipak Karki, Kedar Chalise, Sharada Prasad Ghimire, Meera Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Shrestha, Ishwar Khatiwada, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha, Prakash Raut and Sapana Pradhan Malla.