KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 12
The government has sent an ordinance to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari proposing to amend the negative list in Section 116 of Criminal Procedure Code, whereby the government can withdraw cases filed against people who were involved in political agitations in the past but subsequently entered into agreements with the government to renounce violent methods and join the political mainstream.
The government's move drew condemnation from political leaders, including leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress, and civil society members who say the ruling alliance's move was aimed at granting amnesty to Resham Chaudhary, who has been convicted in Kailali carnage and lodged in Dillibazar prison.
A government source said the ordinance proposed to withdraw cases filed against political cadres and leaders at any level of judiciary.
Resham Chaudhary, who was convicted by Kailali District Court and whose conviction was upheld by the Dipayal High Court, has appealed against the conviction in the Supreme Court.
The government has, however, defended its move saying that past governments had also brought similar ordinances.
Speaking at a press briefing here today, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said the government brought the ordinance to bring political parties and groups indulging in violence into peaceful mainstream politics.
"Past governments had also brought similar ordinances granting amnesty to political prisoners," Karki said, adding, "The objective of the ordinance is to facilitate the role of all parties in the nation building process."
"We need peace, stability, unity, development, and prosperity.
For achieving these goals we need everybody's cooperation,"Karki added.
The government's move comes in the backdrop of its attempt to give political space to radicals.
The Nagarik Unmukti Party, led by Resham Chaudhary's wife Ranjita Chaudhary, and CK Raut-led Janmat Party, have three and six lawmakers, respectively, in the newly elected HoR.
The ruling coalition, which needs two seats in the House of Representatives to get to the halfway mark of 138 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives, is trying to win the support of these new forces, as well as the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, who have been complaining that despite getting into peace pacts with the government some of their cadres and leaders are still languishing in jails.
However, the government's move has many detractors.
NC leader Shekhar Koirala has written in a Facebook post that granting amnesty to convicted people through an ordinance is a mockery of the rule of law, the parliamentary system, and democratic norms.
He said the ordinance could set a bad precedent.
NC General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, Pradeep Paudel, CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party have also condemned the government's move.
Opponents of the ordinance have urged the president not to give her assent to the ordinance.
President's Political Adviser Lalbabu Yadav told THT that the president was studying the ordinance and would follow constitutional provisions to take a call on it.
"This ordinance is different from the citizenship bill.
The citizenship bill had violated the constitution and that was the reason the president did not sign it into the law," he said.
Article 114 (1) of the constitution stipulates that the president may, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, promulgate an ordinance.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
