The 19 Supreme Court (SC) justices have decided to not share bench with Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana and only hear habeas corpus petitions.
"We agreed on Monday to only hear habeas corpus petitions and not share bench with CJ. We will only hear habeas corpus petitions even if he assigns other cases as well. We all are also together on the stand that he should pave the way," an SC justice told Setopati.
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 Kumar Chudal and Justice Bam Kumar 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 Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Dhungana, Kumar Regmi and Kumar Chudal even as senior justices held a discussion about CJ Rana assigning cases to himself.
The justices have decided to not share bench with CJ Rana and only hear habeas corpus petitions after Rana assigned cases to himself on Monday.
CJ Rana has constituted 10 benches on Tuesday and assigned 298 cases including just one habeas corpus petition to the benches.
Another justice told Setopati that CJ Rana is resorting to cheating and defiance against their stand of seeking his resignation.
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.
