Judicial panels in Jajarkot fail to deliver

Jajarkot, November 1

Judicial committees formed at local level in Jajarkot are facing a hard time in carrying out their job, thanks to the lack of required guidelines, apart from the lack of capacity and expertise on the part of the committee coordinators.

One-and-a-half years after local governments were formed, the guidelines are yet to be ready.

Bheri Municipality Deputy Mayor and Judicial Committee coordinator Bhawana Bhandari said. “We’re facing a hard time settling cases for want of necessary procedure. This has deprived people of their right to speedy justice,” she lamented.

Barekot Rural Municipality Vice-chair and Judicial Committee coordinator Oma Shahi, on her part, bemoaned her low level of education that  had seriously hampered her capacity to carry out her job. “As I’m not much educated, I can’t read the laws, which has made it difficult for me to discharge my duties,” she said.

Some other judicial committee coordinators, mostly women, said they now felt  compelled to study law at least to effectively discharge their duties. Such committees are entitled to adjudicate some 12 types of cases.

Though there are judicial committees at each local level to settle disputes, most people don’t have any knowledge about judicial committees. “Most people don’t know that they can get justice at their own local level through the committee,” said a civil social leader Rajendra Bikram Shah.