Three writ petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against the decision of Attorney General Savita Bhandari.

The writ petition filed by Yubaraj Safal, Ayush Badal and Dinesh Tripathi has been registered. The first presentation of the writ has been scheduled for Magh 20.

In their writ, the Attorney General has sought an interim order to stop the withdrawal of cases such as money laundering and organized crime, claiming that the purpose of withdrawing the case is to withdraw the case even though the charge sheet is said to be amended. The Attorney General had decided to amend the charge sheet of all the defendants in the cooperative fraud case linked to Gorkha Media. Initially, she had made such a decision only in the case of Lamichhane, but on Friday, she revised the case again and decided to approve the amendment of two charge sheets against all the defendants. Nepal has been in a controversy after the decision to withdraw the cases of at least 50 defendants, including GB Rai, who were issued red corner notices at a time when he was on the risk list for money laundering.  

Nepal is at risk of being on the ‘black list’ of the ‘grey list’ of money laundering

The writ claims that if Attorney General Bhandari keeps amending any case at will, judicial chaos will arise and fair justice will be lost. The writ also claims that the Supreme Court should intervene as the judicial process is in danger when every government settles the cases of people close to it in this way. The Nepal Bar Association also issued a statement on Friday and demanded the Attorney General to immediately withdraw his decision. The bar has stated that the Attorney General’s decision violates the rule of law. The writ petition claims that the decision to amend the indictment based on Section 36 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is a wrong practice.  ‘The decision to withdraw the case is against the prevailing legal system and the principles propounded by the Supreme Court on withdrawal of cases earlier,’ the statement said. 

‘Such a selective decision will affect the jurisdiction of the court and affect the concept of an independent judiciary,’ the bar said. ‘It is clear that this issue will bring serious deviations in the criminal justice system itself, violate the rule of law, and promote the arbitrariness of the executive. We oppose the decision to guarantee the rule of law as the politicization of crime and the criminalization of politics encourage impunity and kill the spirit of criminal justice.’

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