By Our Reporter
It seems the Parliament and even the government will be checked by the judiciary from resorting to activities that contradict the constitution and democratic practices.
Two of the latest verdicts given by the Supreme Court served as a testimony to this.
After the Supreme Court said that the allocation of the fund under the constituency infrastructure development programme popularly known as the pork-barrel fund was against the doctrine of separation of power, the parliament and the Judiciary came into confrontation.
Despite criticism from the public, Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat had allocated pork-barrel funds to the lawmakers. No party opposed the fund because it used to be spent by the lawmakers of their parties. Now after the five-member constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Bishwombhar Shrestha quashed the allocation in an interim order issued last week, the major parties including the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have taken exception to the interim order.
Finance Minister Prakash Mahat had proposed an allocation of Rs. 50 million for each electoral constituency for the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme to address the local development needs as anticipated by the people through their representatives. Under this programme, a minimum of Rs 10 million will be allocated to each project across various sectors, which include road construction, irrigation, water supply, education, health, tourism and sports. The budget has allocated Rs. 8.25 billion for this programme.
The SC in its interim order also reminded the three organs of the government of their jobs. It said the legislatures at both the federal and provincial levels basically had lawmaking jobs.
Earlier, the Supreme Court gave a slap on the government and political parties stating that amnesty to Resham Chaudhary, the mastermind behind the Kailali carnage of 2015 was against the constitution.
President Ramchnadra Paudel had pardoned him and freed him from jail as agreed by the ruling parties.
In the case of Chaudhary, the division bench of Justices Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Nahakul Subedi ruled that the government had proved the charges against Resham Chaudhary beyond doubt. The top court observed that the statements of the co-accused before the police, their deposition in the court, government witnesses’ statements before the police and the court and call details of Chaudhary’s cellular phones proved his involvement in the Kailali incident in which eight police personnel, including SSP Laxman Neupane and a toddler, were killed on 24 August 2015.
The full text on Chaudhary proved that the government and ruling parties were not abiding by the rule of law. They could free any criminals for their political benefit.
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