Justice Bam and two other judges had, as found by the probe committee, released notorious criminals Sanjay Shrestha, Rohit Paliwan Agrawal and Bhimsen Pandit on low bail instead of sending them into custody as required by the existing law. The release of the notorious threesome arrested on charges of kidnapping, murder and illegal arms possession is tantamount to a crime.
Though Biratnagar Appellate Court Judge Hari Bahadur Basnet, one of the three judges to issue the faulty verdict, has since resigned, Justice Bam and Hetauda Appellate Court Judge Tej Bahadur Karki remain adamant that they did not make any mistake in passing the verdict. The JC is expected to sack Judge Karki once he furnishes his clarifications, but it is beyond the JC´s jurisdiction to sack a sitting apex court justice.
The JC has, however, done its bit by forwarding the probe committee report to parliament despite vehement opposition by Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh. It is unfortunate and beyond comprehension that Minister Singh has tried to save the tainted judges. Minister Singh can still block the impeachment process by not forwarding the probe committee report to parliament, which is his duty. Should that happen, we urge Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to intervene and ask the minister to forward the report to parliament at the earliest.
Once the probe committee report makes it to parliament the latter should take up the issue with urgency. We also urge Speaker Subas Nembang to take special initiative in this matter. Minister Singh has already tried to misinterpret the report and argued that the spirit of the JC decision was not to impeach Justice Bam. That is so untrue. Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha has already said on record that the objective behind forwarding the report to parliament is to initiate impeachment proceedings. We are sure there will be many lawmakers in parliament who might take sides with Minister Singh and stand against impeachment.
But we also hope that a majority of the lawmakers will take this matter with all the seriousness it deserves and decide in favor of impeaching Justice Bam. Parliament must send out a strong message to other corrupt judges that their fate will be no different from Justice Bam´s if they don´t mend their ways and deliver verdicts in accordance with the law.
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