The seven-page code of conducts passed by the historic two-day conference of all 223 judges of the country on Wednesday is based on the Bangalore Principles on Judicial Conduct, a universal set of codes for judges, and its amendment in 2006 by the Economic and Social Council.
The code of conduct has six main heads detailing what judges should and should not do to uphold judicial independence, impartiality and people´s faith in the judiciary.
It says that judges should not come into "inappropriate" contact with members of the executive and the legislative bodies.
A seven-member committee led by Justice Khil Raj Regmi had finalized the code of conduct last month but was not adopted upon realization that all the judges should be involved in its finalization.
The Regmi-committee was assigned to prepare the draft considering that the existing code of conduct of 1998 did not meet international standards.
The code of conduct further says that judges should be impartial not only while passing verdicts but also in the whole judicial process prior to the verdict. It demands that judges be committed to judicial work.
"A judge should not let lawyers run their offices at his residence or meet parties to subjudice cases at his residence," the code of conduct states.
The existing Code of Conduct for Judges1998 was silent in this regard though the international code of conduct for judges clearly prohibits judges from meeting with parties to cases at their residences.
This issue became a matter of national debate in July 2006 when media ran a story of former Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel meeting parties to cases at his official residence at Baluwatar, Kathmandu.
"I hope all the judges (attending the conference) will implement the code of conduct honestly. I will also take every initiative to implement the code of conduct in its letter and spirit," Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri, who heads the Judicial Council that is responsible for enforcing the code for judges, said at the conference.
Similarly, senior-most justice of the Supreme Court Min Bahadur Rayamajhee, who is likely to succeed Giri in May, also urged the judges to abide by the code of conduct.
"You have ownership to this code of conduct as you are involved in preparing it. You should use it to win people´s faith on the judiciary," Rayamajhee urged the judges. The 1998 code of conduct was imposed by the Judicial Council after the Full Court, the apex policy-making body of the judiciary, adopted it. Judges from district and appellate courts were not involved in preparing the codes. As a result, the codes were poorly enforced.
Though the new code of conduct, which will come into effect once it is published in the government gazette, is of international standard, judges doubt its implementation.
"We have seen the poor enforcement of the 1998 code of conduct. Even the new codes do not have strong mechanism for its implementation, increasing the chances of the same poor implementation," a district judge said after the conference.
The Judicial Council is responsible for enforcing the code of conduct for judges.
kiran@myrepublica.com
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