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Shrestha said this while replying the queries of lawmakers during a meeting with Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee on Thursday. The committee confirmed his nomination as the new chief justice. [break]
“I don´t think the country can afford the federal system of judiciary as practiced in the United States due to our economy. We can adopt a unitary system of judiciary even though the country turns federal,” he said.
During the meeting, Maoist lawmakers bashed the SC for deferring verdict on the age controversy of former army chief Rookmangud Katawal.
“I will list the cases of high political importance, and give them high priority and pledge not to make such mistakes,” he said.
The would-be chief justice admitted that the judiciary in Nepal is not corruption-free, but argued that such ills have been much hyped.
He said delayed justice, non-transparency, verdicts against government cases, and backlog cases, among other things, have been some of the weaknesses of the judiciary. "I have set the goal of turning the judiciary into a sacred, clean temple of justice [in my tenure]," he said.
Shrestha, who is the senior most justice in the SC, will succeed incumbent Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma who is retiring on Friday. Shrestha, who has been serving in the judiciary for the last 34 years, has the reputation of passing bold verdicts, especially during the king´s direct rule and has a clean image. Shrestha had joined the Supreme Court on January 29, 2003, as a temporary judge.
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