Sixteen complaints have been filed against Manoj Sharma, the nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court.
The Parliamentary Hearing Committee of the Federal Parliament had previously called for public complaints against Sharma.
On May 7, the Constitutional Council had decided to recommend Sharma for the post of chief justice by a majority vote.
The committee has called a meeting for Tuesday morning to discuss the complaints received against Sharma. The committee is chaired by lawmaker Bodh Narayan Shrestha of the Rastriya Swatantra Party.
The committee is preparing to open the complaints and immediately hold discussions with the complainants.
"We will open and review the complaints during the meeting at 9:45 a.m. tomorrow," a committee member said. "Depending on the nature of the complaints, we will discuss them with the complainants tomorrow itself."
The lawmaker added that the committee plans to call the complainants for discussions by 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
"If the discussions with the complainants conclude tomorrow, we will proceed with the hearing based on that," the lawmaker said. "Depending on the complaints, we will conduct the hearing for chief justice nominee Sharma by day after tomorrow at the latest."
Sharma was appointed as a Supreme Court justice in April 2019. At the time, lawmakers had raised questions during his parliamentary hearing, saying he had failed to clearly explain the work he intended to do at the Supreme Court.
Parbat Gurung, who was then a lawmaker from the CPN-UML, had commented that Sharma's presentation did not seem “energetic.”
Senior Advocate Shambhu Thapa had filed a complaint with the parliamentary hearing committee, arguing that Sharma lacked the required qualifications to become a Supreme Court justice.
Similarly, another lawmaker, Shiva Kumar Mandal Kewat, had remarked that “a person who cannot diagnose the court's weaknesses cannot cure them.”
During that hearing, Sharma had said that he was not aiming for the leadership of the Supreme Court.
"I am not in a position to become the chief justice," Sharma had said during the hearing. "Leading the judiciary and working as a justice are two different things."
