KATHMANDU, June 11: The Supreme Court (SC) ordered a fine of Rs 1,000 on the Director General of the Department of Industry (DoI) after he delayed in submitting the related case records and documents as instructed.
After the SC issued the order to send the case records, the DoI delayed complying, leading to the fine being imposed according to the law. Immediately following the fine order, the DoI submitted the case records to the court.
The joint bench of Justices Tek Prasad Dhungana and Nripa Dhwoj Niroula ordered the DG of the DoI to pay a fine on April 22. The SC Spokesperson Achyut Kuikel stated that the court imposed the fine because the case faced delays due to the long-pending file not being submitted, and the file was only submitted after the fine was ordered.
This case is related to the trademark of Tigers Brewery Industry Pvt Ltd. After the hearing concluded on Monday, the date for delivering the verdict was set for July 1. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the DoI, and others are the defendants in the case. The trademark-related case was registered in the SC on November 27, 2016.
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After the hearing in the case, the SC ordered the Industrial Property Section of the DoI to submit certain files related to the case on November 27, 2024. The DoI responded four months later, on April 4, stating in a letter to the court that the search for the files was still ongoing. Subsequently, the court issued another order on April 7, 2025, and again in Baishakh, 2082 BS (mid-April to mid-May 2025), directing the DoI to find and submit the files compulsorily before the next hearing.
The SC had sent an official letter addressed to the DoI director general of, instructing that the file must be submitted before the scheduled hearing, or if submission was not possible, a reasonable and clear explanation must be provided. However, neither the requested documents nor any response was sent to the court. The order does not mention the director general by name. However, Rajeshwar Gyawali is currently serving as the DoI director general.
After that, the SC issued an order to impose a fine of Rs 1,000. The order stated, “As it is clearly seen that the DoI director general has violated Section 34(1) of the Administration of Justice Act, 2073, a fine of 1,000 has been imposed on him in accordance with Section 34(2) of the same Act.”
The order also stated that within seven days of receiving the order, the director general must either search for and submit the requested case file along with related documents, or, if the file cannot be provided, appear in person before the bench on the scheduled date with a clear explanation for the failure to submit it.
Section 34(1) of the Act states that “If a court, judicial or quasi-judicial body or authority orders any office to submit or send any file, document, or record as evidence in a case, or seeks clarification or a response, such office must immediately comply with the order.”
Sub-section 2 states that “If any office fails to submit the files, documents, or responses requested by the court within the time prescribed by prevailing law or as specified by the court, the court may impose a fine of Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 on the head or employee of the concerned office each time.”
The SC is currently working on resolving pending cases as part of a campaign to bring the number of cases older than eight years down to zero by the end of Asar (mid-July). Spokesperson Kuikel stated that, in cases where proceedings have stalled due to government offices and other concerned bodies not submitting the required documents for years, the court is now taking a different approach to move them forward.
Earlier as well, the SC had ordered action against officials, including the then-secretary, after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) failed to submit requested files in a corruption case. The judgment noted that the concerned parties in the case also bear responsibility for the delays in delivering the verdict.
In 2076 BS, the SC had requested records related to a corruption case involving former Home Minister Gobinda Raj Joshi from the CIAA. However, as the CIAA delayed in providing the records, the SSC ordered the initiation of disciplinary action. The joint bench of Justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Sapana Pradhan Malla issued the order, stating that the CIAA had deliberately stalled in submitting the requested documents to the court.
