The Supreme Court has ordered to submit the writ filed with the demand to prosecute former Prime Ministers Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal and former Chief Secretary Leelamani Paudel in the case of embezzlement of land of Lalita Niwas in the full bench. The bench of Justices Til Prasad Shrestha and Nityananda Pandey on Thursday issued an order to hear the writ pending for five years by the full bench.

In the land embezzlement of Lalita Niwas, the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission filed a case in the special court on 22 January 2076, making 111 people guilty, imprisoned and fined and 65 people as defendants for the purpose of land confiscation.

Senior Advocate Balkrishna Neupane filed a petition in the Supreme Court on 29th January 2076, saying that only those who executed the decision by acquitting former Prime Ministers of Nepal and Bhattarai and the then Chief Secretary Leelamani Paudel were made defendants. 

Neupane demanded that the then prime minister and the chief secretary should also be prosecuted with the argument that not prosecuting the person who signed the decision and whose decision led to the embezzlement of the land of Lalita Niwas is against the principle of natural justice. 

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police, which conducted a separate investigation into the Lalita Niwas case, filed a case against 311 in the Kathmandu district court last year for piracy, which is pending. In July last year, the bench of judges Anil Kumar Sinha and Kumar Chudal, while hearing the petition related to the arrest of Yograj Poudel, who was arrested during the investigation, issued a directive order to 'investigate from the top level of the pyramid'. 

Senior advocate Neupane and advocate Raveen Sharma filed another writ in October last year saying that the directive meant to prosecute former prime minister Bhattarai and Nepal and former chief secretary Paudel as well, but it was not done. It has been demanded that they should be prosecuted according to the directive order of the court. 

On the case filed by the authority in January 2076, the special court decided on February 3 last year and gave a decision that all the land of Lalita Niwas will be in the name of the government. The special court convicted 131 people including 2 former secretaries and 5 members of the then occupier Rana family for the crime of misappropriation of about 136 ropani land of Lalita Niwas premises. 

The bench of Khusiprasad Tharu, Ram Bahadur Thapa and Ritendra Thapa found guilty along with the former Land Reforms Secretary Chhabiraj Pant and the former Physical Planning Secretary Deep Bahadur Basnyat and the then occupants of Lalita Niwas Suniti Rana, Shailaja Rana, Hemanshamsher, Hatkashamsher and Rukmshamsher. 

Meen Bahadur Gurung, the owner of Bhatbhateni supermarket involved in buying and selling land, and Shobhakant Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi, who were accused of land mafia, were found guilty by a special court as the main conspirators in the land embezzlement case. Some high-ranking defendants, including former Deputy Prime Minister and Physical Planning Minister Vijay Kumar Gachchdar, former land reform ministers Chandradev Joshi and Dambar Bahadur Shrestha, were acquitted by the special committee.

Senior Advocate Neupane and Advocate Sharma filed another writ on October 28, saying that it is not justified in the eyes of justice not to impeach the high officials and to acquit those who did. Hearing these three writs, the Supreme Court has ordered to submit them to the full bench.

After the political change of 2046, the land of Lalita Niwas, acquired in 2021 after paying legal compensation, was stolen and destroyed by the occupiers, middlemen, fake mohi and traders. Accordingly, on various dates from 2049 to 2069, the land of Lalita Niwas was illegally taken in the name of an individual by the decision of the Council of Ministers.