A high-level team of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut is leaving for India on Saturday. The cabinet has decided that Law Minister Anil Kumar Sinha will also attend the Chief Justice's visit.

A team of Chief Justice Raut and Chief Registrar Bimal Poudel is going to the Indian capital New Delhi to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Chief Justice Surya Kant after the retirement of Indian Chief Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gawai. After this team returns, senior-most judge Sapna Pradhan Malla is scheduled to go. Malla is going to attend the Constitution Day program.

The Cabinet has already approved Raut and Poudel's visit to India. But criticism has also started after the Chief Justice's team, which recently returned from a visit to Bangladesh, went to India as soon as the session began in the Supreme Court. This visit has been criticized due to the past practice of not attending the swearing-in ceremony of the Indian Chief Justice.

The Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday has given permission to Industry Minister Anil Kumar Sinha to visit India. The Supreme Court judges have commented that the Chief Justice, Senior Judges and Chief Registrar will also be attending the event where Sinha will participate as the Law Minister, separately from the Supreme Court.

Sinha will participate in the oath-taking ceremony of the newly appointed Chief Justice at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on December 21 and will participate in the Constitution Day program to be organized at the Supreme Court on December 22. ‘Just three weeks ago, a team including Chief Justice Raut, Senior Justice Malla, Justice Binod Sharma and Chief Registrar Poudel returned from an unsuccessful visit to Bangladesh,’ said a judge. ‘In the past, we have no history of participating in the oath-taking ceremony of a Chief Justice to be appointed in India.’ Now, when Sapana Pradhan Malla becomes the Chief Justice after some time, which of the Chief Justices of the neighboring countries will be called for the oath-taking?’

Another judge says that judges should be aware of the place and agenda of their visit and should not go immediately after being called. ‘The Supreme Court has just started hearing cases.’ The judge said that the visit should have been stopped considering the current situation in the country.

Former Justice Balram KC says that it is undesirable for the Chief Justice to attend the oath-taking of the Indian Chief Justice. KC also said that the constitutional provision that the senior-most judge should lead the judicial leadership of the country would be violated when the Chief Justice goes on a foreign tour or is absent from the Supreme Court for other reasons.

Former Justice KC also said that there is no tradition of leaving a vacancy in the judicial leadership in the Supreme Court of Nepal during the oath-taking of the Indian Chief Justice, according to the former Justice. ‘This is probably the first time that the Chief Justice is going to attend the oath-taking of the Chief Justice like this.’ There was no tradition of going like this,' he said.

Earlier, Chief Justice Raut's team had visited Bangladesh without any program or formal context, and now, when he goes to India for the oath-taking, more serious questions may arise. After the practice of inviting the prime ministers of friendly countries to the oath-taking ceremony when the prime minister is appointed in a neighboring country, the Chief Justice has not invited and participated in the oath-taking ceremony of his neighboring counterparts. To start with, the Supreme Court judges have commented that the Supreme Court should first decide who to invite and visit Nepal. None of the team members wanted to comment on the criticism being made about the visit.

Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court Bimal Poudel said that the team is going to India under the leadership of the Chief Justice at the formal invitation of the Supreme Court of India, 'The senior-most judge will be here. The Chief Justice and the Chief Registrar are scheduled to participate.' Poudel said that this visit is being made to expand relations as there is a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nepal and the Supreme Court of India.