KATHMANDU, Feb 10: Agitating lawyers from various Madhes districts have agreed to sit for a dialogue with the Nepal Bar Association (NBA).

Earlier, the lawyers who staged a sit-in at the central office of NBA and also collectively resigned from NBA on Thursday, refused to sit for a dialogue with their own umbrella organization.

NBA has formed a talks team led by senior advocate Kamal Narayan Das to hold discussions with the Madhes-based lawyers.

"As NBA General Secretary Khamma Bahadur Khati and leader of the agitating lawyers, Sudhir Karna, issued a joint statement vowing to implement the solution finalized or proposed through the dialogue, the agitating lawyers agreed to sit for discussions with the talks team," said advocate Satish Jha, one of the members of the talks team.

However, the lawyers have said that they will continue their protest programs until a solution is finalized through the talks scheduled for Friday.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the judges' appointment at seven high courts, and protesting against the bar-bench agreement on the issue, a group of lawyers from the Madhesi community and Province No 2 staged a sit-in on NBA premises. According to Shyam Mishra, former chair of Appellate Court Janakpur Bar Association, around 300 lawyers from Province 2 attended the protest program and resigned from the NBA.

Mishra said that the appointment of judges at the high courts was contradictory to the principle of proportionate inclusion. He also said that they were forced to stage a protest against the NBA, their own umbrella organization, because the latter ended its protest without addressing the agenda of inclusion properly.

Earlier, the NBA and government attorneys had launched separate protest programs against the appointment of judges at the high courts. Both protest programs had ended after reaching general agreements.

 
• agitating lawyers
 
• madhes districts
 
• nepal bar association