The Law, Justice, and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives has directed the Social Welfare Council to seek clarification from three international human rights organizations after they issued a public statement alleging that the government pressured three senior Supreme Court justices to resign and even threatened impeachment proceedings against them.
Amnesty International Nepal, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) had issued a joint statement on July 24, stating that they had received reports that three senior Supreme Court justices had been pressured to resign and threatened with impeachment if they refused.
Following a discussion held by the parliamentary committee on Wednesday regarding the issue, the committee instructed the Social Welfare Council to seek explanations from the three human rights organizations.
The committee also directed the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities, and Social Security to provide the “credible reports” mentioned by the organizations in their joint statement.
The statement claimed that pressure was exerted on the three senior justices after the Constitutional Council led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah recommended fourth-ranked Supreme Court Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma for the position of chief justice.
According to the statement, the judges who allegedly faced such pressure were Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi, and Hari Phuyal.
Regarding Sharma’s appointment as chief justice, the rights groups said in the statement: “His appointment departed from Nepal’s long-standing practice of appointing the senior-most serving justice, even though three more senior judges remain in office. The Parliamentary Hearing Committee nevertheless endorsed his appointment despite complaints having been submitted concerning the nomination and without any meaningful public examination of those complaints.”
According to the statement, the organizations had received credible reports that the three more senior Supreme Court justices, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi, and Hari Phuyal had been subjected to political pressure to resign and threatened with impeachment if they refused.
“The organizations are unaware of any publicly stated allegations that would satisfy the constitutional grounds for impeachment under Nepal’s constitution,” the statement further said.
