Majority members of the committee on Friday voted for the proposal, which would give parliament the authority to have a final say in interpreting the constitution and the laws. The provision, which was proposed by the Unified CPN (Maoist), was backed by committee members of some fringe parties.
The Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN (Unified Marxist Leninist), however, opposed the idea. They threw their lot in favor of the existing system, which gives the Supreme Court (SC) the final authority to interpret the constitution and the laws.
The Maoist-backed proposal received 20 votes, while 19 votes were cast in favor of the existing system. This is the fourth time that the committee members have voted on proposals relating to the judiciary.
Earlier, the committee had finalized some other issues through votes. On Thursday, majority members of the committee voted in favor of the provision backed by the Maoist on appointment, punitive action and sacking of judges by the parliament. The proposal received 23 votes. The NC, the UML and some fringe parties were against the idea. They were in favor of the existing system, which has authorized the judicial council to make the above decisions.
On Tuesday, members from the same committee voted in favor of a provision that allows for the appointment of eligible candidates other than SC justices to the post of chief justice. As per the new provision, all persons eligible to become SC justices will also be eligible for the post of chief justice. Under the existing system, the CJ is chosen only from among the sitting justices of the SC. Traditionally, the senior-most SC justice is appointed CJ. The NC and UML were in favor of the existing mechanism, albeit with some improvements.
On Wednesday, majority member in the committee voted in favor of a provision for having two separate mechanisms to appoint justices at the SC and state-level courts. The proposal was backed by the Maoists while the NC and the UML proposed a system of a single central mechanism for the appointment of all justices.
CA members from the NC, the UML and some fringe parties have termed the Maoists´ proposal a strategy to keep the judiciary under parliamentary control. “It is clearly a calculative move by the Maoists to end the existence of independent judiciary," said a member of the committee from UML, Ram Nath Dhakal. On the other hand, the Maoists claimed that the provisions necessary to keep the courts away from political disputes.
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