Sharma's name was unanimously approved by the hearing committee meeting held at Singha Durbar on Tuesday.
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The Parliamentary Hearing Committee has approved the name of Manoj Kumar Sharma as the Chief Justice. Sharma's name was unanimously approved as the Chief Justice after the parliamentary hearing.
The Hearing Committee meeting held at Singha Durbar on Tuesday unanimously approved Sharma's name, informed the Committee Chairman Bodh Narayan Shrestha. Now President Ram Chandra Poudel will appoint Sharma as the Chief Justice.
Sharma had submitted his action plan related to judicial reforms to the Parliamentary Hearing Committee. He also answered the questions asked by the MPs. During the hearing, the MPs had raised questions about the pressure not to register a petition against the bench, the existence of groupism in the court, and the decisions made in cases including the Ncell tax dispute.
The Constitutional Council's meeting on Baisakh 24 had decided to recommend Supreme Court Justice Sharma for appointment as the future Chief Justice.
The council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Balendra Shah recommended Sharma, who is the fourth-ranked judge. With this, the tradition of making the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court the Chief Justice has been broken.
The Constitutional Council recommended the name for the Chief Justice by a majority decision. Council members National Assembly Speaker Narayan Dahal and main opposition Congress parliamentary party leader Bhishma Raj Angdembe had submitted written dissent to the decision.
After Prime Minister Shah, who chaired the meeting, put forward the name of Sharma, who is the fourth-ranked judge, National Assembly Speaker Dahal and Congress parliamentary party leader Angdembe had expressed their disagreement. When they raised the issue of tradition, Shah argued that ‘tradition should no longer be called tradition, justice delivery and expertise should also be taken into account’.
Who is Sharma?
Born in Birgunj on 4 Ashad 2027, Manoj Kumar Sharma has done his BL from Nepal Law Campus in Kathmandu and LLM in Business and Constitutional Law from Pune University, India. He also received a PhD in ‘Freedom of Association in the Context of Nepal’s Labor Law’ from Tribhuvan University.
He is the nephew of former Chief Justice Damodar Sharma. Manoj Kumar Sharma, who obtained his advocate’s license in 2051, also provided legal advice to various companies and organizations while practicing law. Sharma taught law to BBS level students from 2060 to 2065.
He became a permanent judge of the Supreme Court on 6 Baisakh 2076. He has been a member of the Constitutional Bench since 23 Magh 2080. From 22 Paush 2079 to 12 Bhadra 2081, he was a member of the Access to Justice Commission and became its chairman. Sharma was a member of the Information Technology Committee of the Supreme Court from 2077-2079.
He was an additional judge in the Court of Appeal from Jestha 2070 to Mangsir 2072. The interim constitution of 2063 had a practice of appointing additional judges in the Court of Appeal. Sharma was an additional judge in Butwal from Jestha 2070 to Bhadra 2071 and in Patan from Asoj 2071 to Mangsir 2072.
