KATHMANDU: The Nepal Bar Association (NBA) leadership under senior advocate Bishwo Kanta Mainali will complete its tenure of three years in mid-February. However, though the country witnessed a sea change in its political situation and saw many ups and downs, no changes have been seen in the judiciary, while the NBA, being a part of the judiciary, could not meet expectations.

Many lawyers and individuals do not see NBA making significant achievements under Mainali’s leadership in the last three years. Young lawyers accuse Mainali of always going abroad and not concentrating on their professional development and the institutional development as well.

Though the state organs and political parties have continuously been insulting the judiciary and interference in the judiciary, the NBA never made a serious effort to safeguard the judiciary from such attacks.

“He (Mainali) spent almost of his tenure by going abroad,” advocate Laxman Acharya said. “He was never concerned about providing professional training to young lawyers despite our fight to safeguard judicial independence,” he added. “Judiciary will suffer further if the new leadership acts in the same manner.”

Lawyers and academicians have fought against the Maoist government whenever it tried to poke its nose in the judiciary. The then Law Minister Dev Gurung had sought resignation of Judicial Council member Moti Kaji Sthapit, but the Maoist government had to give in after lawyers and academicians fought against the government.

An important event took place in the judiciary’s history in the country when the NBA leadership fought against judges’ involvement in corruption. Even Mainali’s licence was suspended for six months, while the Supreme Court withdrew its action against him later.

This was taken to be a historic event that exposed the judges’ and defense lawyers’ relations for the first time. This event showed that lawyers and judges hate each other though they work together. The event also showed that the lawyers always accused the judges of being corrupt and vice versa. Later, the Supreme Court and the Nepal Bar Association signed an agreement to resolve the crisis. The lawyers boycotted hearings and consequently, the court staffers suspended work in courts in the Kathmandu valley, refuting the allegation of the lawyers.

Except on this issue, the current leadership could not work against corruption and irregularities and failed to execute many other judicial decisions. The NBA was adamant when the Judicial Council appointed judges of the Supreme Court to the District Courts, but it did not demand the Judicial Council appoint the judges in the District Courts through an open competition to execute a provision of the Interim Constitution. This was a

major failure on part of the NBA leadership as young lawyers, aspiring to join the district courts, failed due to the negligence of the bar leadership.

Another failure of the current leadership was that it could not make effective the legal assistance given to the common people. This has been seriously threatening the judicial image, while the common people have not being able to get justice. It is said that almost 80 per cent of the poor people do not have access to justice.

There are many examples of the poor people not getting proper defence and these people have been sentenced for many months just because they could not pay a small amount of fine slapped by the court. Some of these criminals convicted by the lower courts could not move the higher courts to challenge such cases due to their poor financial status. However, the NBA could not work to this effect.

“It is true that we could not do so many things, but no one can overlook our efforts in fighting against judicial corruption,” Raman Kumar Shrestha, General Secretary of the NBA, said.

“We could not do many things even though we wanted to, but it is wrong to say that we were not involded at all in reforming the judiciary; to give an example, the judiciary has signed a four-point agreement with the NBA

to bring about reforms in

the judiciary,” Shrestha added. “To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we are planning to form

a Lawyers’ Academy, which will provide training to lawyers.” he said.