Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been found to have spoken truth when he told the House on Thursday that the Supreme Court (SC) has stopped the government from making public the report of the commission formed under Girish Chandra Lal to probe the violence in the plains just before and after promulgation of the Constitution in 2015.
Responding to the question of Nagarik Unmukti Party Gangaram Chaudhary about why the government has not made the report of the commission formed under Girish Chandra Lal following the Tikapur incident public, PM Dahal stated that the Apex Court prohibited that.
PM Dahal was accused of lying with some reports claiming that the SC had not stopped making public of the report.
The bench of the then Chief Justice Cholendra Shumher Rana and Justice Sapana Malla Pradhan on October 17, 2019 issued a mandamus instructing the National Information Commission to take a decision about whether to make the report of Lal Commission public or not within three months after hearing a petition filed by four persons including Geeta Kumari Barai of Maya Devi Rural Municipality of Rupandehi demanding that they be given a copy of the report.
But the commission did not take any decision within the deadline.
The commission after getting new office-bearers then instructed the government on February 17, 2022 to make the report public. But the then Chief Secretary Shankar Bairagi again moved the SC demanding an interim order against the commission’s instruction.
Bairagi claimed that making the report public would affect law and order, and have adverse impact on harmony among different ethnicities and communities.
The bench of Justice Kumar Regmi on April 3, 2022 then issued a short-term interim order instructing the government to not immediately implement the commission’s order to make the report public pointing that the issue was related to law and order.
The bench had also sought written response from the commission on the issue. Commissioner at the commission Ratna Prasad Mainali told Setopati that the commission has already furnished its written response.
PM Dahal referred to the interim order issued by the bench of Justice Regmi while stating that the SC has stopped the government from making the report public during the question-answer session in the House on Thursday.
