13 justices to meet CJ today before deciding whether to seek his resignation or not
KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 25
Thirteen justices of the Supreme Court boycotted the bench today as they held consultations among themselves on what should be their move against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, who faces accusation of lobbying the prime minister to get his brotherin-law appointed to the Cabinet and delaying the hearing of cases filed against appointments in the constitutional bodies.
A total of 216 cases were listed for hearing today, but the apex court could not conduct hearing in any case.
Chief Justice Rana who had called a full court meeting today, could not hold the meeting as justices had earlier decided to boycott the meeting.
A Supreme Court Justice told THT that one section of justices wanted to ask the CJ today to resign from his post, but another section wanted to hear his side on all controversies and accusations against him before arriving at a stance.
"We will meet the CJ tomorrow and make our views public on the recent controversies surrounding the CJ," the justice said. Recently, the Former Judges Forum-Nepal had issued a press release repudiating other justices of the apex court for not speaking up against Rana for seeking to get his brother-in-law appointed as a minister and delaying the hearing of cases filed against appointments to constitutional bodies.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association today held a meeting of its executive committee and issued a press release saying that Chief Justice Rana had failed to play his role effectively and should resign from his post.
The SCBA has not stated any of the recent controversies surrounding Rana, such as the CJ lobbying for his brother-in-law's appointment as a Cabinet minister and his attempt to delay hearing of cases filed against the appointments to constitutional bodies, but stated that Rana had failed to rectify discrepancies and anomalies plaguing the judiciary.
The SCBA said its attention was drawn to reports of discrepancies and anomalies in the judiciary.
Since the leadership of the judiciary has not been able to play an effective role by rectifying discrepancies and anomalies plaguing the judiciary, this bar is concerned about it, the SCBA said in its release. It stated that hearing of the cases were halted today as justices had lost faith in the chief justice, depriving citizens of their right to justice.
The chief justice's failure to conduct the full court meeting today proves that he is inefficient and unable to play an effective role as mandated by Article 136 of the constitution. The SCBA also said the leadership was creating an obstacle in introducing reforms suggested by relevant panels.
Meanwhile, four former chief justices - Min Bahadur Raymajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha, and Sushila Shrestha - today issued a joint press release asking Rana to resign from his post, reacting to accusations against him. They said if the judiciary failed to use its wisdom to resolve its problems, then there could be intervention from the legislature. They said since the current problems were created by CJ Rana, he should be held responsible for all the mess.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 26, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
