KATHMANDU: Supreme Court (SC) judges have boycotted all the benches Tuesday after Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana constituted benches for hearing all cases from Tuesday.

Chief Justice Rana assigned ten benches to hear 298 cases, including habeas corpus, for today, contrary to the understanding reached with SC justices earlier.

SC justices had yesterday agreed to sit in benches to hear cases related to the writ of habeas corpus only and also forged consensus about not sharing bench with the Chief Justice.

None of the SC judges attended the benches today following breach of the understanding CJ Rana had reached with them.

As the SC judges have been mounting pressure on CJ Rana to step down and are in favor of his graceful exit, the Chief Justice, keeping the communication channel with rebeling judges open, tried to restore the apex court’s full-fledged operations.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) has given continuity to the ongoing agitation against Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana even today. Bar members demanded CJ Rana’s resignation by organizing a corner meeting at the premises of the Nepal Bar Office building, Ramshahpath.

As soon as the program started on Tuesday, Nepal Bar President Chandeshwar Shrestha termed Chief Justice Rana as a “light that will be faded and blown out soon” and warned of intensifying the protests across the country. “He is just like a fading light. He must step down,” Shrestha said.