Senior advocate Shambhu Thapa has said that imposing 'pre-censorship' on matters of public interest to talk about pending cases in the court is against the constitution. He said this in a video conversation with Kantipur about the unauthorized letter cut by the Supreme Court staff on Wednesday and the situation that arose after that and the existing problems in the court.
When Congress General Minister Gagan Thapa commented that the Supreme Court had not been able to investigate the cases of 52 officials of constitutional bodies for four years, a contempt case was filed against him. Hearing about it, the joint bench of Justices Sapna Pradhan Malla and Nityanand Pandey on Tuesday ordered Thapa to submit a written reply within 15 days as to why action should not be taken in contempt.
After any case, the usual order made by the court is the show cause order, which also happened in Thapa's case. The contempt case against the former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who had previously faced a similar case, also took place in the initial hearing of the contempt case.
In the case of Thapa, the court also ordered him not to speak like this in the future. The court has ordered Thapa by reminding him that ``the restrictive phrase of Article 17(2) of the Constitution of Nepal that personal freedom is not absolute and the recognition that matters that have an adverse effect on the delivery of justice in relation to cases pending in the court shall not be discussed even in any house of the federal parliament'' has been absorbed by Article 105 of the Constitution. This order has been issued in the name of the opponent, considering the sensitivity of the judicial process of fair justice in the case pending in the court, and not to make any statement that would adversely affect the case pending before the court. The information of the order will be given to the opponent," the order said.
Senior Advocate Thapa commented that it is a bit unnatural to receive a petition against this expression of Thapa for contempt of court and to order not to speak further, even though it is fine until the show cause order is issued against it .
"You can speak on public issues under consideration in the court, because it is not only judicial property, if a case is filed, it is also public property and every citizen has the right to present his point of view on it," says Thapa. Thapa's comment is that since he has a history of being liberal in criticism against him, it cannot be assumed that there will be a harsh decision in this case, and the current order of the bench cannot be understood as pre-censorship by not speaking on any issue.
