On Monday, the Judicial Council (JC) recommended names of three apex court justices to the government for appointment in the CA Court after Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri and Law Minister Dev Prasad Gurung´s effort failed to convince Justices Anup Raj Sharma, Top Bahadur Magar and Ram Kumar Prasad Shah to get back to work, according to knowledgeable sources at the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council.
The judges recommended for the CA Court are Damodar Prasad Sharma as its chair and Justices Tahir Ali Ansari and Prem Sharma as members. They will start their work once the cabinet appoints them.
The chief justice was under immense pressure to find an alternative to the old panel because the controversy over the recently-held by-election of Dhanusha-5 is waiting for an initial hearing for the last two weeks. The court is yet to decide on the date for the initial hearing despite frequent requests from the plaintiffs.
One of the judges at the CA court said that they declined to work after the Maoist-led government humiliated them by cutting their allowances on September 7 last year. The judges were being provided with 60 percent of their salary as allowance before the government cut the facility.
“Cutting the allowance that judges were enjoying was an attack on judicial independence,” said Dr Bhimarjun Acharya, an expert on constitutional issues.
Later, the government amended its September 7 decision and said it will provide 25 percent allowance to the CA Court judges. But the judges refused to accept it even though they continued to look into cases at the CA court.
“But they refused to work when the court received fresh case related to the by-election,” said a Supreme Court source close to the Chief Justice.
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