Kathmandu, August 7:

The Judicial Council headed by Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel today decided to allow the government to deploy 75 district court judges as chief election officers to hold the elections to the Constituent Assembly.

“Now, all the district judges in the country can work as chief election officers in the respective districts,“ Secretary of the Judicial Council, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, told reporters. “The meeting held today decided to allow the government to the deploy the judges,“ Dhungana said. According to him, it would forward the decision to the government and the Election Commission.

The government had recently asked the Judicial Council to deploy the judges to hold the elections. “Since there are no judges currently in Jajarkot, Mugu and Bardiya district courts, the Judicial Council has decided to deploy judges Bishnu Subedi, Sita Prasad Pokhrel and Krishna Bahadur Thapa of the respective district courts in Rautahat, Sarlahi and Banke to work as the chief election officers there.“

The Judicial Service Commission headed by Paudel also deployed 165 fist class and second class gazetted officials to hold the elections. They would work as election officers there. Dhungana also said that the Judicial Council has set up a panel to make the necessary changes in the Judicial Council Act 1990 and the Judicial Council Regulation 1997 that the panel would study to conduct the examination of the district court judges as per the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007.

“The panel, under the coordination of Judicial Council member Basudev Prasad Dhungana, would suggest necessary changes in the existing laws to make arrangements for the appointment of the district judges,“ he added.

In the panel, the Judicial Council has appointed Vice-chairman of the Nepal Law Commission, Hari Prasad Neupane, Judicial Council Secretary Dhungana and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Kamal Sali Ghimire and a representative of Nepal Bar Council to conduct the study. The interim constitution has said that the district court judges would be appointed through examination.