By Our Reporter
It has been months since the Supreme Court has failed to deliver due to dispute among the justices and the protest
launched against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana by Nepal Bar Association.
Although CJ has been suspended following the registration of the impeachment motion in the parliament, the functioning of the SC has not yet returned to normalcy. Moreover, no one knows the situation if CJ Rana returns to work again.
Likewise, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority is trapping the clerk level employees and sub engineers, sparing the powerful civil servants and politicians. Everyone visiting the government offices in Kathmandu feels how rampant corruption is there, but the CIAA is arresting and filing cases against ward chairs, school teachers of the villages and ward secretaries for their involvement in corrupt activities.
It took years for the government agencies to find out how the Bottlers Nepal had evaded taxes and file cases against the companies. This shows the ineffectiveness of the corruption control activities in the countries. Several contractors have left their works half-done, but they are hardly brought to book.
Similarly, many of the constitutional bodies have been filled up with officials loyal to the political parties. When party activists reach the leadership of the constitutional bodies, they cannot deliver fair services. It is what has happened in our constitutional bodies. Of course, politicization is what has paralysed our constitutional bodies set up to deliver justice and help maintain good governance in the country.
House session prorogued
President Bidya Devi Bhanadri prorogued the session of both the Houses of the Federal Parliament effective from Tuesday midnight.
According to a statement issued by the general secretary of the Parliament Secretary Bharat Raj Gautam Tuesday evening, the President prorogued the current session of the parliament as per Article 93 (2) of the Constitution on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.
Earlier, the government had recommended President Bhandari to prorogue the 10th session of the House of Representatives.
The 10th session of the parliament convened on December 14, 2021, was continuously obstructed by the main opposition party, the CPN (UML) stating that Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota did not take any action against 14 of its lawmakers who split the party and formed CPN (Unified Socialist).
The 10 session of the parliament had approved the MCC Compact and an impeachment motion filed against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana was registered in the House.
Impeachment proposal against CJ Rana gets stranded in the House
With the prorogation of the Parliament session by the President on the recommendation of the Council of Minister from Tuesday midnight, the impeachment proposal registered against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has been left stranded in the House of Representatives.
Now the proposal is not likely to move forward for at least three months which means CJ Rana may not be able to return to the Court for six months. He is retiring in November on age ground.
The House session may be summoned only after the local election to present the annual budget, which should be presented within May. After presenting the budget, the parliament will discuss it before endorsing it by mid-July.
Although the House of Representatives had formed an 11-member recommendation committee to proceed on the impeachment proposal, the House got prorogued before the committee started its works. Normally, the parliament needs to conclude the impeachment in three months after it begins to proceed on it. Now it will take at least three months to proceed on the proposal and if it takes another three months to finalise the proposal, voting on the proposal will not take place before September, and if the government delays the procedure by two months, the CJ will be retired. Thus, it is unlikely for CJ Rana to return to Supreme Court now. He may tender resignation considering the non-cooperation from the parties in the parliament and the government.
The impeachment was registered by 98 lawmakers of the Lower House in a dramatic development on February 13 when the parties were sharply divided over the MCC Compact.
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