Justices have differed in their verdict on the petition filed against Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane and Attorney General Dinmani Pokharel.
A bench of Supreme Court (SC) Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Saranga Subedi had been hearing the petition filed by advocate Anupam Bhattarai. The bench has issued its verdict on Thursday.
Subedi has ruled that Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane should remove himself from the Home Ministry to support fair investigation on the issue of cooperative fraud pointing that there can be obstruction when he remains home minister.
Pointing that there are no legal provisions to suspend home minister merely after registration of complaints against Subedi has ruled that it would be appropriate for him to pave the way on the basis of constitutional morality.
Malla has ordered Home Minister Lamichhane to allow fair investigation on the complaints filed against cooperative fraud.
The case will now be heard by a bench including three justices after the two justices differed on their verdict.
Responding to the petition, the Supreme Court had earlier ordered documents related to a fraud case involving Supreme Cooperative to be presented in court. A bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Til Prasad Shrestha had sought documents related to the case, which was registered at the Rupandehi District Court by the government attorney.
The apex court had then sought the complaint said to have been filed against Home Minister Lamichhane in Pokhara. But police informed the court that no complaints had been filed against him.
The Office of the Attorney General had issued a letter on May 6 stating that it found no complaint lodged against Lamichhane when it queried in Rupandehi, Kaski and Chitwan districts.
Advocate Anupam Bhattarai had moved the Supreme Court against that letter but the court’s chief registrar initially refused to register the petition. Bhattarai lodged another petition against the refusal to register his petition against the letter.
Hearing the second petition on May 22, a bench of Justice Tek Prasad Dhungana ordered the court to register Bhattarai’s petition against the letter that gave a clean chit to Lamichhane.
Bhattarai has questioned legality of the letter issued by the Office of the Attorney General and made Lamichhane and Attorney General Din Mani Pokharel defendants in the petition.
