Twenty-three courts, including the Supreme Court, are set to file a complaint with the police regarding the vandalism and arson that occurred on Bhadra 24. The decision to file the complaint was made by the full Supreme Court meeting held on Sunday.

Supreme Court spokesperson Arjun Koirala informed that a police complaint will be filed for investigation. ‘During the movement, vandalism, arson and looting took place. A criminal investigation and record are required in the damage to government property,’ he said, ‘Who caused the damage and why in courts across the country? Since that needs to be investigated, it has been decided to file a complaint in a full meeting.’

The court will also submit the complaint and details to the Gauri Bahadur Karki-led inquiry commission, he said. The Supreme Court and Kathmandu District Court will file a police complaint this week. Koirala informed that other district and high courts will start filing complaints from Tuesday.

The issue of filing a police complaint was raised by Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut in the meeting. He had stated that an investigation should be conducted to find out who caused the damage and why. After Chief Justice Raut and Senior Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla said that there was a record that a complaint should be filed, all the judges agreed. The meeting had reached the conclusion that a criminal investigation should be conducted as the court had suffered huge losses and looting in its history.

‘All the judges in the plenary meeting were of the same opinion. A complaint should be filed and its record should include why and who was involved, and an investigation should be conducted,’ said a Supreme Court judge. ‘If a complaint is not filed, impunity will increase and other bodies will not dare to do so. The court, which is supposed to give justice to others, cannot remain in injustice.’ 

The judge said that he had decided to provide all the evidence of the incident to the police. ‘On 24 and 25 Bhadra, looting took place in the court. This is a planned and criminal activity. Legal action should be taken against those involved,’ said the judge. ‘After the investigation into regular criminal charges, it is expected that the reason why the court was attacked will also come out.’ 

23 courts damaged, 14 completely destroyed

23 courts, including the Supreme Court, Special, 3 High Courts, 4 High Courts and 14 districts, were damaged in the protest on 24 Bhadra. The damage has been divided into three categories: complete, partial and general. The Supreme Court, Kathmandu District Court and 10 other courts suffered complete damage, 9 partial damage and 4 minor damage.

The buildings, vehicles and office equipment of the courts that were completely damaged were damaged to the tune of Rs 2.128 billion. The Supreme Court has stated that the losses were Rs 2.246 billion and Rs 145.8 billion respectively in the courts that were partially damaged. 

According to the Supreme Court's data, 14 courts across the country have been completely destroyed. The buildings of the Kathmandu District Court, district and high courts, including the Supreme Court, have been damaged to the point of being unusable, said Supreme Court Information Officer Neerajan Pandey. 24 buildings have suffered partial damage. These buildings are in a condition to be operational after 'retrofit' or some repairs. 38 benches were completely destroyed and 47 were partially damaged. 

3 judge residences were completely damaged and 2 were minor damage in the demonstration. Similarly, 2 staff residences were completely destroyed and 3 were partially damaged. 8 buildings housing security personnel were completely destroyed and 6 were minor damage. Six waiting rooms for service recipients were also completely destroyed, while five were partially damaged. 129 four-wheelers, 290 two-wheelers and 51 bicycles of courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, were completely destroyed. The Supreme Court alone suffered a loss of Rs 400 million 19 lakh in vehicles. 

Many information technology equipment was found to have been burned and stolen. According to the Supreme Court's data, laptops, printers, and display TVs have been stolen. In some districts, CCTV and UPS batteries were also vandalized and stolen. The court has lost 14,092 desktop computers, 635 laptops, 854 printers, 23 document scanners, 23 small scanners, 86 video conference sets, 1,111 UPS batteries, 23 networking equipment, 42 internet, 3,112 network cables, and 89 routers. 445 CCTVs, 29 projectors, 195 display TVs, 228 solar panels and batteries, 38 photocopy machines, 6 generators, 339 ACs, 32 coolers, 705 fans, 58 vacuum cleaners, 34 refrigerators, 81 e-attendance machines have been lost by the courts. Courts across the country have lost 933,000 case files. 

The Supreme Court and Kathmandu District Court suffered the most damage in the 24 Bhadra protests. After the main building of the Supreme Court burned down, services were resumed from tents. In addition, the security personnel building, information room, printing house building and waiting room were completely destroyed. All the benches and chambers in the main building were damaged to the point of being unusable. 

In terms of four-wheeled vehicles, 13 of the judges', 30 of the court's, and 66 of the court's motorcycles, 36 scooters and 4 private motorcycles were completely damaged. In addition, about 200,000 active and about 197,000 archived files were completely destroyed by fire. The Supreme Court suffered a loss of Rs 1.21 billion. Although the building, vehicles and other materials could be purchased again, the court has lost millions of files, Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut said. He informed that historical files, evidence and documents in the Supreme Court, Kathmandu District Court and other courts have been lost. However, he said that justice has already started being served in courts across the country, including the Supreme Court.

Server 'recovered' after 49 days 

The court's server, which was damaged by vandalism and arson on 24 Bhadra, has been 'recovered' after 49 days. Protesters had set fire to and vandalized the Supreme Court and the data center in Hetauda. The entire system was burnt down when the data center on the third floor of the main building of the Supreme Court caught fire. The data center in Hetauda suffered minor damage. 

According to Supreme Court spokesperson Koirala, the court will be able to provide all digital information about the case from Tuesday. "Now the digital systems of all the courts have been recovered. All the details entered digitally have been found safe," he said.