Supreme Court (SC) Justices Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Dhungana, Kumar Regmi and Kumar Chudal have conducted hearing on Monday against the collective stand of justices that they will hear habeas corpus petitions only if Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana does not assign any case to himself.
The justices had demanded CJ Rana should not conduct any hearing until the graceful exit proposed by Rana, and halted hearing on other cases apart from habeas corpus petitions. CJ Rana accordingly had not assigned any case to himself before the Tihar festival while the justices heard the habeas corpus petitions.
But CJ Rana assigned cases to himself on Monday. He constituted two single benches of Justice Chudal and Justice Shrestha and included himself in a joint bench with Justice Chudal among the four joint benches constituted for the day.
Hearings in three of the six benches were conducted by the four justices even as senior justices held a discussion about CJ Rana assigning cases to himself.
All the SC justices have been demanding CJ Rana's resignation 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.
