Gupta´s resignation has come immediately after Chief Justice Kheel Raj Regmee expressed serious concern over Gupta´s appointment, to Republica on Thursday. [break]
Regmee had also said that he wanted the controversy to be resolved by the prime minister, who had appointed Gupta to the post.
A graft case against Gupta is sub judice at the Supreme Court.
“I resigned so as to ensure the presence of non-controversial members in the CC,” reads Gupta´s resignation letter disseminated through the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS).
Gupta further said that he doesn´t want to drag honorable members of the CC and the honorable institution into controversy due to his presence in the CC.
“The CC comprises honorable figures, including the chief justice and the speaker,” states the letter, adding, “I don´t want to see questions being raised against them.”
Recently, some former bureaucrats, including former chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Surya Nath Upadhaya and former secretaries Bhoj Raj Pokharel and Rameshor Khanal, popular comedians Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bansha Acharya and civil society leader Dr Sameer Mani Dixit had submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, demanding dismissal of Gupta as CC member.
The former bureaucrats had reminded the prime minister that the chief justice and a person against whom a graft case is sub judice at the Supreme Court (SC) cannot sit together.
They had likewise pointed out that the decisions of the CC would not be constitutionally and politically valid until Gupta was removed from CC.
The SC has already fixed a date [a month from now] for issuing a verdict on Gupta´s case. The CIAA had filed a graft case against Gupta accusing him of amassing property through illegal means.
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