Justice must prevail

We applaud Chief Justice (CJ) Ram Prasad Shrestha’s firm stand to take action against Supreme Court (SC) Justice Rana Bahadur Bam and two Appellate Court Judges Hari Bahadur Basnet and Tej Bahadur Karki, who have been found guilty by a high-level probe of taking controversial decisions to release notorious culprits, despite unrelenting pressure from Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh. The CJ’s stand maintains the sanctity of the apex court and we expected nothing less from a person occupying such a prestigious and responsible position.



While CJ Shrestha’s stand on meting out justice no matter what is worth noting, what is equally baffling is Minister Singh’s undue pressure on the CJ to act otherwise. The minister’s stand on the issue raises some very pertinent questions: Why is the minister siding with the guilty trio? Is he really convinced that the findings of the one-man probe committee that looked into the cases of the trio are biased? If that is indeed the issue, doesn’t Minister Singh also have to take responsibility for the findings since by virtue of being an ex-officio member of the Judicial Council (JC), he also had a say in the formation of the probe committee? Is the minister now acting in this way because the findings of the committee are not to his liking? Did he want the committee to prepare a report that would have given a clean chit to Bam, Basnet and Karki? If that is the case, doesn’t it indicate that he was bribed to protect them against all odds? We urge the minister to answer these questions and clear the air of uncertainty once and for all.



Meanwhile, we would also like to brush aside the claim of Justice Bam that the one-man committee headed by SC Justice Balram KC did not give him any room for clarification. That is a blatant lie. Everyone knows that he was questioned several times before the report was readied. His claim, though, that it is not possible for a one-man committee to come out with an objective analysis of events might be true. And opting for a multiple-member committee to look into the matter might also be a solution to end the row between the CJ and the minister.



Though CJ Shrestha has the support of three other members of the five-member JC and can legally take action against the trio, although the minister will write a note of dissent in that case, setting-up a new multi-member committee will help him kill two birds with one stone: He will leave no room for anyone to question the impartiality of our justice system as well as ensuring that Minister Singh is not in anyway able to bulldoze his way and stop the law from taking its rightful course.

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