KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court (SC) has formed the Constitutional Bench again after a long time since the dispute relating to the misappropriation of then Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana arose in the court.
According to SC sources, a five-judge bench comprising senior judges Meera Khadka, Harikrishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha and Ishwor Khatiwada has been formed under the chairmanship of acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki.
The newly formed bench will start hearing on six certiorari related cases from today. However, the writ petition against the appointment made in the constitutional body will not be heard today.
A constitutional bench has been constituted under the chairmanship of acting Chief Justice Karki as Rana was automatically suspended after an impeachment motion was filed against him in the parliament.
There was a controversy that the judges were not ready to share the bench with then Chief Justice Rana as there was a conflict of interest for Rana was also a member of the Constitutional Council when recommending appointment to the constitutional body.
Advocate Om Prakash Aryal, who is also the petitioner, had raised the issue saying that he should not sit in the bench as it was a conflict of interest of Chief Justice Rana. After that, Rana had verbally replied that he would be on leave on the day the session was formed.
After that, advocate Ganesh Regmi and advocate Deepak Mishra had filed another writ petition arguing that the constitutional bench sans Chief Justice could not be constituted.
Hearing on the writ, a single bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal had issued an interim order not to proceed with the hearing in the Constitutional Court till the writ is finalized. Phuyal’s single bench order against the full bench had drawn further controversy in the court.
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