Submitting its study report to Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi, the taskforce led by SC Justice Prakash Wasti has recommended to the apex court to make it mandatory for all justices to give reasons in writing if they refuse to see graft-related cases. [break]
Some justices have long been deferring graft cases saying they shouldn´t be involved in settling some particular cases because of possible conflict of interest. However, to date, there is no provision requiring the justices to give written clarifications for not seeing cases.
An SC source said such a provision will primarily discourage justices from deliberately deferring graft cases.
The taskforce report has also suggested fixing the court hearing dates for graft cases through consensus among lawyers representing plaintiffs, defendants and the SC registrar. "There should be pre-conference from the level of SC registrar with plaintiffs and defendants´ lawyers to fix dates for hearings," sates the report.
The report has also recommended to the chief justice not to postpone or reschedule court dates of graft-related cases. "Corruption cases should be heard on a regular basis until the final verdict," the report further states.
According to a knowledgeable source, the taskforce report has asked the chief justice to form a three-member bench to hear high-profile corruption cases.
"Major corruption cases involving high-profile political leaders should be settled through the three-member special bench without a day´s gap," reads the report, adding, "The current trend of hearing corruption cases twice a week is ineffective, so graft cases should be heard on a daily basis and with top priority."
But for other graft cases, the taskforce has recommended that such cases should be heard on a regular basis by a two-member bench.
Altogether 420 corruption-related cases are on SC backlog for the past four years.
The anti-corruption strategy report also aims at discouraging individuals ranging from process servers, private lawyers, government lawyers and middlemen to justices who try to influence the outcome of corruption cases.
The taskforce has suggested to reform internal management of the SC to fast-track hearings on graft-related cases. "A separate section has to be set up in the SC for fast-tracking corruption-related cases," the report says.
The report also suggests seeking support from the media if the corruption-accused persons refuse to receive court notices from process servers.
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