The impeachment recommendation committee investigating charges against suspended Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana is being criticized for summoning Supreme Court (SC) justices and former chief justices.
On Wednesday evening, SC justices decided to not go to the committee to face questioning. Four former chief justices – Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha and Sushila Karki – also decided to not report to the committee for recording statement on Thursday.
The committee had on Wednesday written to justices accused by CJ Rana during his questioning and summoned them for recording statement. This has given rise to the question as to how appropriate it was to summon them as per the spirit of Constitution.
Sanjeev Raj Regmi, spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, said that the impeachment recommendation committee does not have legal and constitutional jurisdiction to summon SC justices.
“The parliamentary committee summoning justices is not like summoning others. The committee’s letter should also mention the article and clause of the law and Constitution under which they are summoned,” he said. “The constitution and law have envisioned summoning Supreme Court justices to the parliament only for hearing before appointment or for taking statement during investigation on impeachment.”
The parliament cannot summon them in any other condition, according to Regmi.
“It is not appropriate to summon justices as witnesses in the investigation on the chief justice,” Regmi said. “The justices’ decision to not go even if summoned is right.”
According to him, the committee could have written to the justices if it was mentioned in the impeachment motion that they possessed evidence that supported or validated the impeachment.
A justice at the SC said that the committee stoked the controversy by summoning the justices without any thought.
“Cholendra Shumsher has said whatever came to mind in the name of statement,” the SC justice said. “The committee summons Supreme Court justices for questioning over his statement. Does it not have to think about the constitutional system, its significance and its impact when summoning Supreme Court justices?”
Constitution expert Bipin Adhikari also remarked that it was not appropriate for the committee to summon the justices.
“It was not appropriate for the committee to summon Supreme Court justices for statement. The relation between the court and parliament is based on the principle of separation of powers. Justices are not obligated to go there just because the parliament summons them,” he said.
According to him, the committee appears to be working in the absence of laws that could provide clarity on the impeachment process and other issues. There would be guiding laws on who can be summoned and who cannot if there were an act.
“The chief justice has given statement as if a lawyer were debating in court. It would not be right to summon the justices based on that. The justices also could not go supporting the impeachment,” he said.
He said that the SC justices took the right decision by refusing to report to the committee.
