Manoj Kumar Sharma has been confirmed as the chief justice.
On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Hearing Committee unanimously approved Sharma as the 33rd chief justice of the Supreme Court, according to Nepali Congress lawmaker and committee member Anand Dhungana.
The committee, which had initially called for complaints over a 10-day period, completed the entire hearing process in a single day on Tuesday before endorsing Sharma. Sixteen complaints had been filed against him.
Lawmakers questioned Sharma regarding those complaints.
He was accused of instructing the judicial administration to not register petitions and applications brought against him following his recommendation for chief justice.
"You questioned whether writ registrations were halted because of me. Registering them is the administration's responsibility. The administration must have used its discretion. I do not wish to comment further," he responded during the hearing.
The hearing committee had also received a complaint accusing Sharma of plagiarism during his PhD. The complainant demanded that his PhD thesis be verified using Tribhuvan University's plagiarism-checking software. Sharma replied that there was no truth to this allegation.
Furthermore, CPN-UML lawmaker Padma Aryal questioned how a justice ranked fourth in seniority could be more qualified than the three justices ahead of him.
To this, Sharma replied, "The Constitutional Council has already completed the process for this appointment. The chief justice is appointed, not promoted. While seniority criteria hold strong weight in promotions, this is an appointment."
Lawmaker Rajeev Khatri also questioned Sharma about allegations that he was being appointed because he is the nephew (nepo baby) of former chief justice Damodar Sharma.
In response, Sharma said, “I am not aware of any legal provision that says a person should not be appointed due to family relations.”
