Supreme Court (SC) justices who had agreed to hear habeas corpus petitions after Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana proposed a graceful exit for him did not conduct hearing on Tuesday.
Five of the six benches constituted for the day have not conducted hearing until now, according to the SC website which has yet to reveal whether the sixth bench of Justices Tej Bahadur KC and Kumar Regmi conducted hearing or not.
CJ Rana revealed the clear path for the graceful exit to Justices Anil Sinha, Sapana Pradhan Malla and Manoj Sharma who visited him Monday evening.
CJ Rana did not assign any case to himself Tuesday and assigned only habeas corpus petitions for the day as per the condition put by the justices that they will hear only habeas corpus petitions, and their demand that CJ Rana should not hear any case.
CJ Rana revealed the clear path for the graceful exit to Justices Anil Sinha, Sapana Pradhan Malla and Manoj Sharma who visited him Monday evening.
Malla told Setopati that she and the other two justices will divulge the details about CJ Rana's proposal only with fellow justices today. "CJ Rana has shared with us a clear roadmap for his graceful exit. We have the responsibility of saving the judiciary's independence and the rights of the service-seekers for justice. We are, therefore, preparing environment to move forward together," Malla elaborated.
The three justices were to divulge details about graceful exit with fellow justices Tuesday morning during their internal discussion before it is made public. The details of CJ Rana's exit plan have yet to be revealed while what transpired during the discussion of justices also have yet to be known.
CJ Rana had sent the message for graceful exit to the justices who were boycotting hearing demanding his resignation through Justice Manoj Sharma on Sunday. Three justices had gone to talk with CJ Rana on Sunday to inform him that they are ready to hear only habeas corpus petitions if CJ Rana were to not assign any case to himself.
Some justices including Kumar Regmi, Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Dhungana and others wanted to conduct hearing for habeas corpus petitions for a few days but senior justices were not ready for that.
CJ Rana told the three justices who visited him on Sunday that he has a few reform works to do at the judiciary which will require some time to complete and would resign after that. The three justices told him about the proposal for hearing habeas corpus petitions and gave him time to clarify the details about the graceful exit he wants.
CJ Rana, who has been assigning cases to himself and conducting hearing even as other justices are boycotting hearing, did not assign any case to himself on Monday accordingly. He constituted six benches for 10 justices including four joint benches and two single benches Monday and all the benches were assigned habeas corpus petitions only.
The justices then sent Sinha, Malla and Sharma to talk with CJ Rana after discussion on Monday seeking details from CJ Rana about the graceful exit, demanding he should not conduct any hearing until such exit, and halting of hearing on other cases apart from habeas corpus petitions as they will only hear habeas corpus petitions, and warning that they will not hear any case if CJ Rana were to try to step back from his commitment and try to cheat them.
CJ Rana clarified the details of graceful exit during the discussion with the three justices for almost three hours Monday evening.
The justices have held several rounds of discussions to form a position on CJ Rana following controversies including picking bench in different cases including those about HoR dissolution, accusations about CJ Rana getting a share of spoils in appointments at constitutional bodies, involvement of CJ Rana in the case about the Constitutional Council, delay in the hearing of case filed making CJ Rana a defendant, and allegations about him seeking share in the Cabinet and been boycotting hearing demanding CJ Rana's resignation.
