By Our Reporter
A committee formed by the House of Representatives has been grilling the suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana on the impeachment motion registered in February this year.
The government and the House which did not initiate a hearing on the impeachment motion for six months started hearing recently just three weeks before the term of the House was to expire.
Everybody knows well that the impeachment motion was tabled with an ill intention of sending the CJ Rana home because any justice and chiefs of constitutional bodies are automatically suspended from the day the impeachment motion is tabled in the parliament. Now, the government had initiated a hearing intentionally not to conclude the issue during the term of the House so that Rana gets automatic retirement. However, now when the term of the House is expiring on September 19, Rana can return to the SC.
The Election Commission on Monday made it clear that the House term ends on September 19, and the hearing will not end in the next 12 days.
However, the hearing resulted to be counterproductive for the present government and the powerful leaders, who were at the forefront to establish the present republic system.
Rana also exposed how the judiciary has been under the control of politicians and the corrupt lawyers associated with the Nepal Bar Association. He even criticized the justices and brought forth their unethical activities.
He said that the impeachment motion was tabled just a day before he was to hear the case related to Lalita Niwas, with which Madhav Kumar Nepal was directly associated. He also said how the BAR interfered in the House dissolution cases and how the Justices got divided over the Bench.
What CJ Rana said at the committee has only revealed the true picture of the present political system and state mechanism full of anomalies and domination of a handful of corrupt persons.
CJ Rana who came down heavily against fellow justices and political parties claimed that the impeachment motion had already become inactive.
Ninety-eight lawmakers from the present ruling coalition had registered the impeachment motion against Rana on February 13 labelling a 21-point accusation against him.
Govt attempt to extend HoR term thwarted
The government that drew criticism finally withdrew the provisions of the bill submitted to the House of Representatives to amend some laws related to elections on Tuesday.
The government that was trying to extend the term of the House of Representatives by amending the election-related laws has drawn criticism not only from the public but also from the Election Commission, prompting it to withdraw the provisions inserted in the bill to extend the House term.
The Election Commission Nepal (ECN) on Monday said that it was inappropriate to amend the election-related laws in such a way that the terms of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Provincial Assembly become different.
The election body said that its attention was drawn to the introduction of a Bill in the Federal Parliament to amend the House of Representatives Election Act, 2017 and Provincial Assembly Member Election Act, 2014 with provisions relating to the tenure of the HoR and the Provincial Assembly.
While the EC officially objected to the move made by the government to extend the term of the House, the lawmakers, even within ruling Nepali Congress were divided over it. NC leaders like Gagan Kumar Thapa were against the extension of the term, while leaders close to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had backed it.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party chairman Rajendra Lingden Sunday while speaking at the House meeting announced his resignation against the unethical and unconstitutional move to extend the term of the House. His resignation also exerted pressure on PM Deuba to hold his plan.
The government on Friday last week registered the Bill to extend the term of the HoR till the first meeting of the new parliament. However, immediately after the news about it reached the public, it drew flak.
The practice has been that the term of the parliament remains until the nomination for the new elections is fielded, but the government and the political leaders in Nepal have tried to breach this practice in the greed of pay and allowances and to endorse some of the controversial Bill by extending the term. Again, when the lawmakers elected under the proportional (PR) electoral system cannot get elected under the same category, the parties wanted to please them by extending the term unlawfully.
It was also reported that with severe criticism from the public, the Prime Minister instructed Minister for Parliament Affairs Govinda Pokharel not to proceed ahead with the bill. Now after the EC strongly objected to the Bill, the bill was withdrawn and the House term ends on September 19.
While the government in Kathmandu agreed to withdraw the Bill, Maoist chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda said in Dhangadhi that the term of the present parliament would end after the registration of nominations for the new elections.
He said the term of the parliament would not be extended.
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