A meeting of the JC held on Tuesday recommended to the government to appoint Kedar Prasad Chalise as chairman of the tribunal and Mohan Raman Bhattarai and Bhupendra Prasad Rai as members. [break]
Chalise is already a member of the Special Court while Bhattarai is a judge at Ilam Appellate Court and Rai is a judge at Baglung Appellate Court.
Though the JC made its recommendation to the government on Tuesday, it was not tabled at the cabinet meeting held on Friday. "The proposal did not come up at the cabinet meeting yesterday [Friday]," said Information and Communications Minister Rajkishor Yadav, who is also government spokesman.
The Special Court, which oversees corruption-related cases, has been left with only one judge following the retirement of its chairman, Gauri Bahadur Karki, and appointment of its member, Om Prakash Mishra, to the post of chief judge at Rajbiraj Appellate Court some three weeks ago.
Asked about the delay in approval of the JC recommendation, Khem Narayan Dhungana, a member of the constitutional body, said that the body concerned could answer that question and that they (JC) had already done their job of making the recommendation.
"We took the decision unanimously in the presence of the prime minister [who also holds the law and justice portfolio] on Tuesday," he told Republica.
However, Dhungana stated that the government might have refrained from tabling the recommendation at the cabinet meeting as Mishra has not yet been sworn in as chief judge at Rajbiraj Appellate Court.
The Special Court has been rendered literally defunct as it is unable to proceed with cases for lack of judges.
The Supreme Court has already been left with just six justices including the chief justice following the retirement last week of justice Prakash Wasti, a justice with temporary tenure.
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