KATHMANDU, Jan 5: Two members of the House of Representatives (lower house) have sought the continuation of the specialized Administrative Court (AC), against the decision of the National Assembly (upper house) to dissolve the AC and create an administrative bench each at the seven high courts. Lower house members said so while registering amendments to the upper house report on the Bill on formation of Administrative Court on Friday.  

The National Assembly had endorsed the bill in October last year by scrapping the provision of the existing separate AC and assigning all its works to the administrative benches, one each at the seven high courts. 

The Administrative Court is responsible for hearing on cases related to the transfer, promotion and dismissal of civil servants including the employees of the state-owned entreprises. 

Ruing Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Ram Kumari Jhankri and main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) Whip Pushpa Bhusal registered separate amendments to the upper house report on the bill, demanding the continuation of the AC.

“As the bill itself is related to the Administrative Court, the existence of one such specialized court in Kathmandu should be given continuity. The provision for creating administrative benches at the high courts may not help reduce the workload related to cases of civil servants in the judiciary,” said Jhnkri.
Some constitutional experts have argued that the decision of the upper house was against the spirit of Article 152 of the constitution which states that special courts can be formed to oversee specialized cases.

Similarly, NC Whip Bhusal has also proposed giving continuity to an Administrative Court in Kathmandu in addition to the administrative benches at all seven high courts. Her amendment is almost similar to the original bill registered by the government at the upper house last June. But she has proposed that the AC chairperson must have at least five years of experience as a special class official in the judiciary, instead of the three-year experience mentioned in the original bill.

According to the bill on the administrative court, a senior judge at each high court will chair the administrative bench while another judge at the same court will be appointed a member of the bench on the recommendation of the Judicial Council. Likewise, a retired senior government official or expert in the related field will also be a member of the bench. Thus, each administrative bench will have three members, including the chairperson. The provision has been endorsed unchanged from the upper house. 
According to the constitution, the lower house can make changes to any bill forwarded by the upper house, if necessary. The upper house cannot change a bill approved by the lower house but it can recommend changes. 

Earlier, the government had tabled the bill at the National Assembly first in June proposing to expand the jurisdiction of the existing Administrative Court by assigning more cases related to transfers, promotions and departmental actions concerning the government employees and public sector employees except for security agencies.

 
• lower_house
 
• administrative_court