KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 11
President of the Nepal Bar Association Chandeshwor Shrestha upped the ante against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana today by urging lawyers to prevent the CJ from entering the Supreme Court tomorrow.
The NBA also issued a press release urging lawyers and justices of the Supreme Court to boycott all benches formed by Rana tomorrow. The NBA issued the press release after some lawyers were injured today on the SC premises when armed security personnel used force against protesting lawyers who wanted to cross the yellow line. The lawyers wanted to cross the yellow line after security personnel did not allow them to set up a podium on the court premises.
The NBA said its vice presidents Senior Advocate Kumar Sharma Acharya and Advocate Rakshya Basyal, NBA General Secretary Lilamani Paudel, NBA Central Committee member Prakash Maharajan, and former NBA Central Committee member Raman Kumar Karna were injured in police action. The NBA stated in its release that if the CJ did not stop repressive measures against lawyers, it would have to resort to stronger modes of protest against him.
The NBA, the Supreme Court Bar Association and 15 justices of the Supreme Court are protesting against the CJ for allegedly seeking to appoint his brother-in-law a minster in the Sher Bahadur Deuba Cabinet and to delay hearing of the cases filed against appointments to the constitutional bodies.
Addressing lawyers assembled on the NBA premises here today, NBA President Shrestha, with Supreme Court Bar Association President Purna Man Shakya standing by his side, said Rana was trying to use security personnel to suppress the peaceful agitation of the lawyers’ umbrella body but the lawyers would not be cowed down. “Until yesterday, we were seeking Rana’s resignation, but today we want him to be removed from the office,” Shrestha said.
The chief justice can, however, be removed only through an impeachment process that requires the support of two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives.
Both NBA President Shrestha and SCBA President Shakya chanted slogans against the CJ, calling him the head of middlemen and a corrupt person. Shrestha also demanded that Rana make his property details public.
Stating that their fight for reforms in the judiciary had spread to the people’s level, Shrestha urged civil society members to join their fight against Rana.
Meanwhile, SC justices continued to boycott hearing of cases other than habeas corpus writ petitions.
Only Rana conducted hearing of other cases.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 12, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.