Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Wednesday has administered oath of office to 17 High Court (HC) judges.
Seventeen of the 18 recommended judges were administered oath of office and secrecy at the Supreme Court (SC) at 11 Wednesday morning. The 18th person will be appointed once an HC judge retires on April 16.
Deputy Attorney General Kiran Paudel, and SC Registrar Mahendra Nath Upadhyay, Secretary at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Ramesh Dhakal were recommended for High Court jusdges.
Neelam Paudel, who was Appellate Court additional justice in the past, Justice at Sarlahi District Court Rajesh Kumar Kafle, that at Rautahat Lekhnath Dhakal, Chitwan Kul Prasad Sharma, Bhaktapur Mohammad Junaid Aaazad, Lalitpur Balmukunda Dawadi, and Parsa Nagendra Lal Karna were recommended as High Court justices.
Seven advocates including Jagat Bahadur Thapa, Sarala Kumari Pandey, Bimala Subedi, Renuka Shah, Daal Kumar Khadka, Ujjwal Shukla and Nava Raj Thapaliya were also recommended as High Court justices.
The Judicial Council had also recommended five justices for the SC.
Chief Justice of Patan High Court Prakash Dhungana and that of Surkhet High Court Sushma Lata Mathema, and senior advocate Kumar Regmi, and advocates Hari Phuyal and Manoj Kumar Sharma were recommended for SC.
Regmi is considered close to the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) and Phuyal close to the ruling CPN. Sharma is nephew of former chief justice (CJ) Damodar Sharma.
The then CJ Sharma had appointed his nephew as Appellate Court additional justice. He was relieved of duty after the Constitution promulgated in 2015 did not keep the position of additional justice. He had been practicing as an advocate since then.
The recommendations and appointments of some have been widely criticized. The issue was raised even during the conference of judges that started a day after the appointments.
CJ Rana has since conceded he has vested interest in controversial recommendation of Sharma. The then CJ Sharma had acquitted Rana after the SC made a judicial comment on the verdicts he gave while at the then Appellate Court, and brought him to the SC.
