KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 22
The Nepal Bar Association today submitted a memorandum to Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota, National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, and political parties listing its reasons for seeking the resignation of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana.
The NBA submitted the memorandum to the CPN- UML, the CPN-Maoist Centre, the Rastriya Janamorcha, the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, and the Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal. NBA Vice-president Rakshya Basyal said they received a positive response from political parties and leaders on their protest against the chief justice.
The NBA, which has been protesting against CJ Rana, alleged that Rana had failed to shoulder the responsibility of the CJ and promote interests of the judiciary.
A team led by NBA President Chandeshwor Shrestha handed over the memorandum to Sapkota at the Parliament Secretariat this afternoon.
Receiving the memorandum, the speaker said that he would try his best to end the current stalemate in the judiciary.
The NBA and dissident justices of the Supreme Court have been protesting against CJ Rana for almost a month now demanding his resignation.
Allegations galore
• Rana entered a quid pro quo deal with the executive and sought to get his relative appointed as a minister in the Cabinet
• Rana ignored NBA warnings and allowed anomalies and promoted corruption in the judiciary
• Rana was trying to appease the executive by delaying hearings of the case filed against political appointments made to constitutional bodies and the case that challenged the validity of the ordinance related to the Political Party Act
• The CJ unfairly commuted the sentence of murder convict Ranjan Koirala and defended his decision to commute his sentence even though the case is sub judice in the SC
• Rana created obstruction in the adjudication of corruption cases by not filling posts of judges at the Special Court
• Rana, who has a conflict of interest in cases filed against appointments made to constitutional bodies, has obstructed the adjudication of the same cases
• The CJ nominated his kin to political bodies
• Rana is unwilling to introduce the automation-based cause list as suggested by the Justice Hari Krishna Karki-led committee
• He assigned particular cases to his own bench and other benches where he could have some control
• Rana, as the chief of Judicial Council, received kickbacks while making appointments
• Rana deployed his kin, judges as middlemen and amassed illegal wealth
A version of this article appears in the print on November 23, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
