Advocate Narayan Devkota, who filed the case against the decision at the apex court on Sunday, has argued that the formation of recommending committee was against the existing Telecommunication Act.[break]
The committee is headed by Secretary of the Ministry for Information and Communications Shreedhar Gautam and has joint-secretary Sushil Kumar Ojha and Business Manager of Nepal Telecom (NT) Pramod Pramar as members.
Two members - Balaram Pradhan and Mahesh Adhikari - in the five-member NTA board are completing their five-year tenure after two months.
“How can the regulatory board work independently when people who select board members belong to one of the operators?” he questioned.
As the regulator is directly related to day to day activities of all the telecom operators, including NT, there would be a big question on NTA´s credibility if board members are appointed as per the committee´s recommendations, Devkota argued.
Nepal Telecommunication Act states that government shall constitute a committee comprising of experts from the related sectors to make recommendation for the appointment of chairman and members of NTA. The government will then appoint chairman and members in the NTA board as per the recommendation, according to the Act.
“Although, the Act doesn´t clearly mention that ´expert´ has to be an independent one; appointment of NT official in the recommending committee might raise questions about NTA´s autonomy,” an NTA official said.
Related story
Meeting of Impeachment Recommendation Committee called for toda...
