KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 2
Supreme Court justices who have asked Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana to quit continued their protest by boycotting the benches.
Yesterday, the rebellious justices had said that they would hear habeas corpus writ petitions but no other cases should be listed in the cause list and the cause lists should not be prepared by the CJ.
Justices boycotted the bench because banking offence cases were also listed in the division bench of Justice Meera Khadka and Hari Krishna Karki. A Supreme Court justice told THT that the committee of three justices - Sapana Pradhan Malla, Anil Kumar Sinha, and Manoj Kumar Sharma - that held talks with the CJ told the dissatisfied justices that CJ Rana was flexible on their demands.
"The CJ had sent a message a few days ago that he wanted a graceful exit. Today we were told that he is flexible on our demands. We don't know what Rana meant by 'graceful exit' or the term 'flexible.' It is not clear if Rana hinted that he would go on leave before resigning from the post," the justice said. He said the rebellious justices requested the committee of three justices to hold talks again with the CJ and seek his clear views on demands of other justices.
Meanwhile, the Nepal Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Association continued their protest at the SC against CJ Rana. President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Purna Man Shakya today told mediapersons that the NBA and the SCBA should also be included in any dialogue with the CJ and if that was not possible then at least the NBA chair should be included when judges negotiate with the CJ.
Shakya said their fight for judicial reforms would continue till anomalies and discrepancies were removed from the judiciary. He added that their fight also included an attempt to amend the constitution.
Lawyers have said that the CJ should not be allowed to be on the constitutional council that nominates people for constitutional bodies. They have also said that the Judicial Council should have justices' majority and the current system of parliamentary hearing should be scrapped.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 3, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
