The Karki scandal should not be allowed to make CIAA weaker and its morale should rather be boosted through choice of a qualified person

At last, Lokman Singh Karki, the suspended chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has lost that position immediately after Sunday’s Supreme Court verdict which has declared him unqualified under Article 119 (5) of the Interim Constitution.

A full bench of three justices, deciding on a review writ petition challenging Karki’s qualifications held him unfit on two major counts.

First, it ruled that his service under Rajprasad Sewa could not be added to his total years of service to count for his appointment as CIAA chief.

Secondly, Karki did not meet the criteria for becoming a distinguished person of high moral character for more than one reason Karki had faced departmental action as per the recommendations of the Rayamajhi Commission and had to resign from the post of Chief Secretary after he was suspended accordingly.

On September 24, 2014, a division bench had, however, upheld Karki’s qualifications for the post.

Sunday’s SC order has been been hailed as the end of terror under Karki’s time as CIAA chief as he frequently disregarded the due process of law and the authority and responsibilities of his constitutional position and the provisions of the CIAA law and the regulations, and selectively moved to act or not to act depending on extraneous factors.

His actions were widely seen to proceed often from motives of revenge or other personal interests rather than impartially on the merits of the cases of corruption. The SC verdict has raised a number of moral questions about the actions of politicians and the executive.

The apex court has also given much food for soul-searching to those powerful people in formal authority or outside who had gone out of the way to make Karki CIAA chief despite a long-drawn wide public and media assertions that he was unfit for the post.

Some kind of credible inquiry is worth considering in this aspect, and those who had shouldered Karki should also consider whether they do not owe anything to the people and the entire nation.

As for judges in general, they should take extra care in the future to ensure that their way of seeing things does not vary so widely and so frequently, particularly in matters of concrete facts which are crystal-clear and where no difficult constitutional or legal interpretations of multiple connotations are involved, as in the case of Karki.

This is necessary to remove the public impression that judges tend to judge from time to time from their personal preferences. An impeachment motion against Karki is also under consideration in the Legislature-Parliament, now in the Parliamentary Impeachment Investigation Committee.

Any decision on the motion does not make any difference now to Karki’s official position but the grounds for the review writ petition and the impeachment motion are quite different – the first relates to qualifications and the second to conduct.

The impeachment motion should now wisely be brought to a conclusion. What is next for the CIAA?

The Karki scandal should not be allowed to make the CIAA any weaker and its morale should rather be boosted through appointment of qualified and otherwise fit person who may do full justice to that constitutional position. There should be zero-tolerance to corruption.

Good initiative

It is good news that the government is mulling building a 100-metre high dam to store rainwater at Shivapuri Dhap to increase the flow of water in the Bagmati River which has become an open sewer due to carelessness of all municipalities in the Valley.

The High Powered Committee for the Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation has envisaged building the dam within 18 months.

Once the dam is built it will store 8 million cubic metres of water which will also help generate 2.12-Megawatt of electricity and raise the Bagmati River’s water level up to three metres during the dry season.

The water stored can also be used for drinking purpose as the water from the Melamchi Project will not be enough to meet demand in the Valley.

The rainwater collected in the Shivapuri dam will also help recharge the water level in the Valley which is depleting by almost 10 metres due to over exploitation of ground water by households, hotels and industries.

It must be given top priority as it will leave a positive impact on environment and river system.