The formation of two joint benches daily is affected, the sitting of the judicial council is delayed due to the absence of members
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Due to the vacancy of four judges in the Supreme Court for a long time, the hearing of cases has been affected. Half of the cases assigned to the Supreme Court are removed from the docket without coming up for hearing every day.
An average of four to five times a case is withdrawn from the Supreme Court. "We are in a strategic plan to speed up the disposal of cases, but due to the lack of a full number of benches, the cases cannot be heard in one sitting," says Achyut Kuinkel, spokesperson of the Supreme Court.
The then Chief Justice Vishwambhar Prasad Shrestha tried to appoint a judge in the vacant post before his retirement. But he withdrew after the Nepal Bar Association opposed the appointment. The bar had demanded that the amendment of the Judicial Council Rules should be withdrawn, which provides that the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court and the Registrar should be senior to other judges when they are appointed to the High Court. The bar even protested in the Supreme Court saying that the appointment will not be made until the demand is met.
On October 11, Chief Justice of Patan High Court Nripadhwaj Niraula and Chief Justice of Tulsipur Nityanand Pandey were appointed as judges of the Supreme Court. Bar President Gopalkrishna Ghimire objected to it saying that it was appointed on the basis of bargaining. After that, a contempt of court case was registered against him in the Supreme Court, which is currently pending.
The bar's position of not allowing the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court remains until the amendment of the rules made by the Council in October 2080 is repealed. In the meantime, the bar called back the member of the council, Ram Prasad Shrestha, saying that he did not support him even as his own representative. After Shrestha retired last November, the bar did not send its representative to the council for two months.
Finally, the Bar recommended Damodar Khadka after the council wrote a letter and sent a representative. Khadka was appointed by President Ramchandra Paudel on January 16. Even after a month and a half since Khadka was appointed, the council meeting has not been held.
"Initially, the council meeting was not held due to the opposition of the bar, later the meeting was not held after the bar delayed sending a representative," said an official of the council. "We have never told the council not to appoint a judge to the Supreme Court and we are still saying," says Ghimire, the president of the bar. After two weeks, the bar election is taking place. Assessing that the situation will change after the election of new leadership, an official of the Supreme Court said that the council is waiting for the bar election.
