KATHMANDU, Jan 3: Newly-appointed Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana, who assumed office as the head of the judiciary on Wednesday, has announced he will not assign any cases to senior-most justice Deepak Raj Joshee.

Chief Justice Rana made the announcement during a briefing for journalists shortly after assuming office. “I haven’t assigned any case to senior-most justice Deepak Raj Joshee. I shall not assign him any cases in future either,” he told the journalists.

Rana stated that he took the decision not to assign cases to Joshee, as he had expressed his commitment before the Parliamentary Hearings Committee (PHC) to respect its decision. The PHC decided in August to reject Joshee for appointment as chief justice.

“Even though he is my good friend and the senior-most justice, I took this stern decision because we need to respect the system and make headway with the problems facing the judiciary,” he further said. 

Joshee, however, said that he would still continue in office. “I shall come to office continuously because I still have so much I need to do,” Joshee added. 

Newly-appointed CJ Rana, during the press briefing, also said that the judiciary would be stronger and more united than in the recent past. “We were not divided even in the past. There was no factionalism and groupism as such. But there is criticism at the level of the public that we are divided and that groupism was rife within the judiciary,” he said. “Look at us here. We are all here at the press conference.”

During the press briefing, all the SC justices except Joshee were present. “Look at us, we are in a different situation than in the past,” Rana added.

Rana also said that there will be major changes within the judiciary to end corruption and irregularities in the courts. On his first day in office, Rana reshuffled the benches while assigning cases to justices even though they could not hear many cases due to the busy schedule for the CJ’s assumption of office.

Arguing that unwarranted comments on the tasks of judges and court activities were a sensitive thing, Rana called on media to be very sensitive and serious while exercising the freedom of opinion and expression on judicial matters.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari had administered the oath of office and secrecy to CJ Rana amidst a function held at her official residence at Shital Niwas on Wednesday morning.

The PHC on Tuesday endorsed Rana for the position of CJ for four years.

After the PHC’s rejection of Joshee for the position of CJ on August 3, Om Prakash Mishra was appointed chief justice for five months and retired due to age limit on Tuesday.

 
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