Kathmandu, February 4:

The Supreme Court is mulling to declare Sunday as a weekly holiday in all courts in the Valley. “We are still on consultation phase whether or not to close the courts on Sundays,” Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena, registrar of the Supreme Court, told reporters.

“All the justices have given green signal to the proposal but a formal decision has not been taken yet,” he added. He also said an apex court assessment had shown that running courts on Fridays was not fruitful and it was a mere waste of fuel. Once the judiciary gets two-day weekly holiday, the courts will remain open from 9-5 pm for five days.

Three years back, the then Chief Justice Hari Prasad Sharma had revived Sunday as the working day in courts after the royal regime scrapped Sunday as weekly holiday in the bureaucracy.

In 1995, then Chief Justice Bishwo Nath Upadhyaya had declared Sunday as a holiday in courts. The move was later adopted in the bureaucracy as well until before the royal regime scrapped it.