Kathmandu, A complaint has been lodged with the Judicial Council against Supreme Court Justice Sunil Kumar Pokharel, accusing him of hearing a writ petition in violation of the judicial code of conduct.
The complaint was filed after Justice Pokharel presided over a hearing on a writ petition challenging the decision of the Office of the Attorney General to amend charges related to cooperative fraud cases filed in several districts against Rastriya Swatantra Party chair Rabi Lamichhane. The cases involve allegations of cooperative fraud, organized crime, and money laundering.
Yuvraj Paudel, the petitioner in the writ, filed the complaint on Sunday. He argued that Justice Pokharel should have stepped aside from the hearing because he had previously worked as a lawyer for Lamichhane. According to Paudel, Pokharel rejected a request from Lamichhane’s legal team asking him to recuse himself from the case.
The hearing on the writ was scheduled on Sunday before a bench comprising Justice Pokharel and Justice Saranga Subedi. Despite the objection from one side, the court continued the hearing and later kept the case under review. As the hearing is set to continue on Monday, Paudel approached the Judicial Council with the complaint.
Paudel said Judicial Council Secretary Jitendra Babu Thapaliya informed him that the complaint would be registered after consultation with Chief Justice Prakashman Singh Raut, who also chairs the Council.
The complaint states that Justice Pokharel violated Clause 4, Sub clause 4.5 (c) of the Judicial Code of Conduct 2017.
The provision says a judge must not hear a case if he or she had earlier worked on the disputed matter as a lawyer or had been involved as a witness.
Before becoming a judge, Pokharel had represented Lamichhane as a lawyer in several cases, including those related to abetment of suicide, citizenship, and passport issues.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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