Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the minister for Physical Planning and Works in his cabinet, Prakash Man Singh, and four others, have been charge-sheeted by the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) for allegedly indulging in irregularities while awarding the contract for the construction of the access road of the Melamchi drinking water project. Investigating officer Rajendra Pokhrel has sought a 13-year jail term for Deuba and Singh, the recovery of the ‘amassed’ money from the six accused totalling Rs.376 million, as well as a fine equivalent to the ‘amassed’ amount. A bench consisting of RCCC chairman Bhakta Bahadur Koirala and two of its members have sent the accused in police custody. This is the first time in the history of Nepal that a former prime minister has been charge-sheeted in a corruption case.

The people are sick and tired of the pervasive nature of corruption in the body politic for a long time. So crackdown on corruption will gain popular support. But the people would also want the widely accepted principles of justice to be applied in the process. In law, a person is deemed innocent until proven guilty. It is required that the due process of law should be followed, and justice should be seen to have been done, too. Questions have already been raised by experts about aspects such as this with respect to the RCCC.

The constitutional question remains unresolved, as the Supreme Court refused to register a case seeking an appropriate answer. Experts such as former SC justice Krishnajung Rayamajhi have questioned impartiality of justice by the RCCC as, according to them, the universal legal principles have been violated by vesting a single agency with the authority to investigate, prosecute and hear a case. The status of the RCCC has not been determined, either, whether it is a judicial or quasi-judicial or an administrative body. The fact is that none of the RCCC members is a judge or a jurist. Even with the best of its intentions, the RCCC can hardly avoid wide criticism that its actions are politically motivated, as Deuba and others have already alleged. The government will do well to take these factors into account for its own domestic and international image, if for nothing else.