KATHMANDU, Aug 25:  The judicial council (JC) has prepared to appoint 16 judges in the high courts across the country.

Following completing all homework for the appointments, a formal decision meeting is set to be held today.  Chief Justice Bishwoambhar Prasad Shrestha has summoned a meeting of the JC today after deciding the number of judges to be appointed from various regions during an informal discussion. A JC official said that the meeting is scheduled for 4 PM today

Among the 16 individuals appointed as judges in the high court, four will get opportunity from the gazetted first class employees in the judiciary service. Earlier, the plan was to appoint only three employees. However, the Chief Justice decided to appoint four under secretary level employees as judges, after consulting with other members. There was pressure from the judiciary service within the judiciary administration to appoint four employees.

Among the joint secretaries of Judicial Service, Man Bahadur Karki, Khadak Adhikari, Jitendra Babu Thapalia, Achyut Kuinkel, Gajendra Bahadur Singh, Thagindra Kattel and Babu Ram Dahal will be selected as judges in high courts, whereas two judges will be appointed from this group. Apart from these, one person might be appointed from among the government lawyers and law officers.

One will be appointed from the joint secretaries of Law. The name given by the Ministry of  Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs could  be approved by the JC. The current minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya, of the Nepali Congress (NC).

The JC  has decided to appoint four people from lawyers as judges of the high courts. The remaining eight district judges will get an opportunity at the high courts.

Mahendra Bahadur Karki, Gopal Prasad Bastola, Giri Raj Gautam, Yub Raj Gautam, Tej Narayan Poudel, Prakash Dhungana, Bhuwan Singh Thapa, Lila Raj Adhikari, Deepak Kumar Kharel, Shiva Bahadur Ranabhat, Kamal Prasad Pokharel, Dal Bahadur KC, Basudev Neupane, Prakash Chandra Adhikari are senior members. Some of these members have already been separated and juniors have been appointed.

Earlier, the meeting of the JC held on August 9, had recommended the appointment of 35 judges from the gazetted second grade employees of the Judicial Service.

There are four vacant judge positions at the Supreme Court (SC). Due to the lack of judges, the rate of execution of justice at the SC has been affected. As a result, there is increasing pressure on the JC to appoint justices to the SC as well.

 
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