KATHMANDU: A large number of court notice servers of the judiciary across the country have applied for voluntary retirement, pushing the country’s judiciary into trouble.

Of the 631 court notice servers, 123 recently submitted for retirement under the government’s scheme of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), introduced by the Maoist-led government.

“After receiving an amount equal to seven years salary, they’ve applied for the retirement,” Hemanta Rawal, assistant spokesperson of the Supreme Court, told this daily.

Along with the junior staffs, 66 first class non-gazetted staffers and 10 section officers of the judiciary too have tendered their resignation under the golden handshake sheme.

“The original number

itself was not sufficient for serving the notice and the retirement of the large number of staffs has put the nation’s judiciary into a real trouble,” he added.

There is no provision in the Civil Service Act, 1992, to appoint such junior staffs and the senior staffers are not supposed to perform the same.

“Since they found that it was beneficial financially in

case they took retirement, the opted for it. This might create hurdle in adjudication process as court cannot give verdict in any case without serving notice,” Rawal explained.

“Many district courts have apprised the Supreme Court of the likelihood of the problem in the absence of such staffers,” Rawal added.

Due to their retirement, district courts in Salyan, Jajarkot, Solukhumbhu, Darchula,

Kapilvastu, Jumla and Dang district will be hit hard.

Rawal also lamented as the government introduced the scheme without assessing the impact in the judiciary.

The Maoist-led government had also cut the daily allowance of court notice servers, which prompted to such en masse resignation, Rawal said.