Kathmandu, January 6, 2006

Lawyers today voiced their opposition on the appointment of Supreme Court judges, claiming the Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudelled Judicial Council had failed to maintain the independence of the judiciary. Protest programmes were held throughout the country against the appointment of ad hoc SC judges. The vice-president of Nepal Bar Association (NBA), Sher Bahadur KC, accused the judicial council of partiality in the selection of judges. “There is an urgent need to reform the whole process of appointment as soon as a parliament comes into existence in the country,” he added. He termed the selection process ‘faulty’ and said it went against the word given to the NBA by the Chief Justice. “Paudel asked for our suggestions concerning the appointment of the judges. But when we did give him some suggestions, he went against them,” KC said while speaking at a protest programme held on the premises of the NBA today. “We will never accept as judges those persons who have been appointed without proper process,” NBA president Shambhu Thapa said. He said the recent appointment of four ad hoc judges to the Supreme Court showed that the judicial leadership was unaccountable both to the people and the Constitution. “Chief Justice Paudel conspired with the government while selecting the judges,” Thapa said.

New guideline to counter doctor-shortage

Kathmandu, January 6, 2006

The government is soon coming up with a ‘Health Sector Human Resource Mobilisation Programme’ to counter the shortage of skilled manpower in the medical field by providing job placements for fresh doctors who studied under government scholarships. “The guideline will address the legal and resource constraints regarding the utilisation of fresh medical graduates who have studied under government scholarships,” Dr Baburam Marasini, senior medical officer at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), told this daily. “According to the new provision, fresh medical graduates will have to serve at least two years in a government hospital, especially in remote areas,” he said. Though fresh doctors are bound by law to serve the country for five years after the completion of their studies under the Scholarship Act, 1968, the health ministry had not been able to utilise the manpower due to legal and resource constraints. The MoHP, the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and the Nepal Medical Council are jointly formulating the guideline, which is in its final stage. According to a source at the health ministry, it will be made public within a few months. “The MoHP will ensure job placements in government hospitals for fresh medical graduates,” Dr Marasini said. There are only 1,200 doctors under the MoHP.