Chakrabarti declines SC Justice offer KIRAN CHAPAGAIN
KATHMANDU, Jan 16: Senior Advocate Bipulendra Chakrabarti, nominated by the Judicial Council on January 5 as ad hoc justice of the Supreme Court, has refused the offer.Talking to myrepublica.com from Dharan over the telephone on Friday, Chakrabarti said, “I am not coming to attend the confirmation hearing in the Parliament.” However, he refused to give reasons as to why he turned down the offer.
This is the second time Chakrabarti, a Biratnagar-based senior advocate, refused a role as justice of the apex court. He was also nominated to the post during former king Gyanendra’s absolute rule in 2005 and he refused the offer.
Earlier in January 5, the Judicial Council recommended 10 names for appointment as SC justices. Besides Chakrabarti, other recommendations were Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya, Prem Sharma, Rana Bahadur Bam, Mohan Prakash Sitaula, Avadesh Kumar Yadav, Girish Chandra Lal, Sushila Karki, Prakash Wasti and Bharat Raj Upreti.
Upadhyaya and Sharma were recommended for permanent, while the remainder were recommended for ad hoc justices of the court. Upadhyaya is the chief judge of Nepalgunj Appellate Court and Sharma is chief judge of Janakupr Appellate Court.
Legal Experts Oppose SC Bench Expansion Plan
THT Online Kathmandu, January 16: Legal practitioners on Thursday opposed the government’s plan to expand the benches of the Supreme Court to Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. They also questioned the government’s motive behind the plan.
Stating that the plan was against the independence of the judiciary, the legal practitioners accused the government of attacking the independent judiciary by introducing the plan through the budget speech.
“The SC’s bench cannot be expanded to any place under a separate roof,” senior advocate Sindhu Nath Pyakurel said. He said the Supreme Court is the apex court by its name, nature and function; and there can be only one apex court and that cannot be divided into many.
Pyakurel was advising the Supreme Court Bar Association on whether it should suggest the panel formed by the government under the coordination of SC Justice Khil Raj Regmi to recommend the government in favour or against the plan.
Former Attorney General Sarvagya Ratna Tuladhar expressed his dissatisfaction at the apex court’s silence over what he called the government’s attack on the independence of the judiciary. “A similar plan was failed even during the Panchayat regime. How can this government bring such a plan now?” he questioned.
Stating that nowhere in the world is the trend of expansion of SC bench, former president of the Nepal Bar Association Harihar Dahal opposed the expansion plan. “This is related to political structure and without deciding the state structure, the bench expansion would be meaningless,” he added.
Former Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade said a similar plan had failed before 1970 and it would be suitable if the government did not make any bid to repeat the same move again.
Chairman of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum Tikaram Bhattarai opposed the appointment of Justice Regmi as the coordinator of the panel as unconstitutional. “How can he be nominated in the panel without the approval of the Judicial Council?” Bhattarai asked.
He claimed that the government’s motive behind the plan was to control the judiciary.Parliamentary Hearing : Bias slur on three SC nominees
Ananta Raj Luitel Kathmandu, January 14: Ten complaints have been lodged at the Parliamentary Hearing Committee against three nominees for the posts of the Supreme Court justices.
According to a committee source, the complaints were lodged against Rana Bahadur Bam, Prem Sharma and Mohan Prakash Sitaula, opposing their posting to the apex court. The complainants have alleged that they had misused power while deciding cases in the lower courts. “The complainants have accused them of bias,” the source said.
However, no complaint has been filed against seven other nominees.
The hearing committee on Friday had given the public five days to file complaints against the nominees for the posts of SC justices.
On January 5, the Judicial Council headed by Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri nominated Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya and Prem Sharma, chief judges of the Nepalgunj Appellate Court and Janakpur Appellate Court, respectively, for the permanent posts.
Rana Bahadur Bam, Abadhesh Kumar Yadav, Girish Chandra Lal and Mohan Prakash Sitaula were chosen for ad hoc judges’ posts. Bam is the chief judge of the Patan Appellate Court, Sitaula the chief judge of the Butwal Appellate Court, Yadav the chief judge of the Tulsipur Appellate Court and Lal the chief judge of the Dipayal Appellate Court.
The Judicial Council has nominated four senior advocates — Bipulendra Chakrawarti, Sushila Karki, Prakash Chandra Sharma Osti and Bharat Raj Upreti — for the posts of ad hoc judges.
The hearing committee has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow to pass its working procedure to take statement of the judges on the complaints and their mission and vision, if confirmed for the apex court posts.
The next meeting of the committee would decide when to summon the nominees to present their vision.10 names recommended for apex court justices
POST REPORTKATHMANDU, Jan 5 – Breaking a months-long deadlock, Judicial Council (JC) on Monday recommended 10 names for justices at the Supreme Court. Of the 10, eight have been recommended for ad hoc justices and two as permanent justices.A meeting of the council that took place for the first time after the CPN (Maoist) came to power five months ago took a decision to this effect.The Council recommended Chief Judge of Nepalgunj Appellate Court Krishna Prasad Upadhyay and Chief Judge at Janakpur Appellate Court Prem Sharma as permanent justices at the apex court.
Both of them will be appointed SC justices by the president. Sharma and Upadhyaya are the seniormost judges among the working Appellate Court judges in the country.
The Council has forwarded eight names to the government — four senior Appellate Court judges and four senior lawyers — for the appointment as ad hoc justices at the SC. Chief judges Rana Bahadur Bam, Mohanprakash Sitaula, Awadeshkumar Yadav and Girichandralal — from Patan, Butwal, Tulsipur and Dipayal appellate courts respectively — have been recommended as ad hoc judges.
Senior lawyers Bipulendra Chakravarti, Shusila Karki, Prakash Wasti and Bharatraj Upreti from Nepal Bar Association have been recommended as ad hoc justices. These eight names have been forwarded for appointment at the SC for the maximum stint of two years.
The name list of all those recommended will be forwarded to the parliamentary hearing committee, said Nahakul Subedi, spokesperson at the Judicial Council.
The council will ask people to file complaints and objections against the recommended names, if there are any, and investigates them before forwarding them to the hearing committee at the Legislature-Parliament.
Chief Justice will then appoint them only after the hearing committee finds them qualified.
Posted on: 2009-01-05SC doubts govt motive over voluntary retirement scheme
The Supreme Court (SC) has doubted the government’s motives behind introducing voluntary retirement scheme for judges at a time when the courts are faring shortage of judges.
The full court meeting of the apex court has rebuffed the draft of VRS submitted by the Ministry of Law.
The meeting also concluded that the draft was not ‘attractive’ enough apart from being unclear.
The draft says that SC judge can seek voluntary retirement at the age of 63 years while district and appellate court judges can seek the same at the age of 60 years.
Currently, SC judges can work up to 65 years and district/appellate court judges can work up to 63 years. nepalnews.com Jan 13 09
Chief Justice of Nepal Kedar Prasad Giri’s schedule
April 19, 2008 – Meeting with Nepali Law Students and legal practitioners in Fremont, California
April 24, 2008 – Meeting with Nepali Community in Northern California
April 25, 2008 – Luncheon and Meeting with Immigration Attorneys, Chartered Public Accountants, Paralegals, Law students of Silicon Valley
April 26, 2008 – Meeting with Dashnami Community in the US on formation of and International Chapter and inauguration of Dashnami International (California Chapter) in Sunnyvale, California. CJ Giri to be felicitated by the newly formed organization. First Lady Mrs. Anjana Giri also present.
April 30, 2008 – Meeting with South Asian Bar Association (SABA) and North American South Asian Bar Association (NASABA)
Lunch With the Chief Justice of Nepal
Date: Wednesday, April 30
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Amber India Restaurant
http://www.amber-india.com/SantanaRow/
377 Santana Row, Suite 1140, San Jose, CA 95128Please join SABA for a once in a lifetime opportunity to have lunch
with Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri at the fabulous Amber India
Restaurant on Santana Row! Space is limited, so please RSVP to
Shirish Gupta at president@southasianbar.org if you would like to attend.About the Chief Justice:
Honorable Chief Justice of Nepal Kedar Prasad Giri has extensive experiences with various judicial and quasi-judicial bodies of Nepal such as Royal Law Reform Commission, Chairman of the Land Limitation Execution Committee, Land Reform Ministry and all levels of courts in Nepal. He took oath as a Chief Justice of Nepal on October 7, 2007. Since then, he has issued various verdicts on areas of international
law, environmental law, human rights, press freedom, land reform and law reform. The Chief Justice is scheduled to arrive in the Bay Area on April 16th, 2008 and will be returning to Nepal on May 01, 2008NEWS SOURCES
नालिश - Nepal America Legal Information Center 
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