KATHMANDU: Former Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha has remarked that the root of the current problem in the Supreme Court is the excess political involvement in structures of judiciary such as the Judicial Council and the provision of parliamentary hearing.
Addressing a lecture series organized by the Kathmandu School of Law, ‘Constitutional Law and Policy Group’ on Monday, former Chief Justice Shrestha remarked that undue political interference and inefficiency of the parliamentary hearing had resulted in the ongoing confusion at the Supreme Court.
Nepal Bar Association, Supreme Court Justices and law professionals protested against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana last month seeking his resignation.
Although the justices have returned to the benches after SC introduced the lottery system for case and bench allocation, legal professionals, including the Nepal Bar Association officials, have been protesting against Chief Justice Rana for nearly three months.
Although Chief Justice Rana goes to court regularly, he does not sit in benches hearings cases of late as other justices are not inclined to share bench with the chief justice.
Former Chief Justice Shrestha alleged that the parliamentary hearing, due to the lack of expert in the committee, makes room for politicizing the appointment of the judges.
He cited that due to some prejudice against Justice Deepak Raj Joshi, the latter (Joshi) was rejected to the post of Chief Justice.
Incumbent Chief Justice Rana had been appointed as Chief Justice after rejecting Justice Deepak Raj Joshi to the post.
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