The Nepal Supreme Court is in crisis. Since the last week of October, most of its judges have been boycotting hearings. The judges are de...
The Nepal Supreme Court is in crisis. Since the last week of October, most of its judges have been boycotting hearings.
The judges are demanding the resignation of Nepal’s Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, who is alleged to have connections with the executive, posing a conflict of interest. As a consequence, Rana is accused of allocating cases only to particular benches and not listing important political matters.
Under pressure, the chief justice has agreed to change the way judges are assigned cases – from a system completely under the chief justice’s control to a lottery system, by which cases would be assigned to judges randomly.
India is not a stranger to accusations of this sort. Similar allegations have often been levelled against India’s chief justices – who, like his counterpart in Nepal, has the power to decide the allocation of cases. Unlike in Nepal, though, no solutions have been proposed.
Conflict of interest
Across the border, various Supreme Court judges and lawyers, including the Nepal Bar Association and the Supreme Court Bar Association, have alleged mismanagement of the court under Rana’s tenure, which started in January 2019. He has been accused of corruption, receiving kickbacks for appointments, not filling vacant judge posts and delaying hearings in matters relating to the government.
Rana is also...
