KATHMANDU, Oct 6: Supreme Court staffers are facing tough time serving the court’s notice on Lokman Singh Karki, the chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The court’s tameldars (process servers) on Wednesday could not serve a court notice on Karki although they reached Karki’s house at Baneshwar Height, ward number 10 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
As the Supreme Court has decided to review its previous verdict and re-examine a writ petition challenging Karki’s appointment as the chief of the constitutional body, the process servers are facing tough time serving the court notice.
The attempt by court staffers to paste the notice to Karki’s house failed as Sita Rai, the secretary of ward number 10 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, did not show up. As per the legal provision the court staffers can paste such notices at defendants’ address only in the presence of secretary of the village development committee or the secretary of ward office in municipalities. Although the court staffers had informed her office, Rai failed to show up.
“She did not show up at Karki’s permanent address although we waited for three hours. We could not paste the notice at the house as it had been rented out,” said Shambhu Khatri, a process server.
Youths obstruct to serve notice on CIAA chief Karki
Chief Executive of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Rudra Singh Tamang said that the secretary might not have been able to visit Karki’s permanent address as the ward secretaries were away on training.
“Otherwise, the metropolitan city staffers are always available to support court procedures,” he added.
Now the court staffers are planning to take the court notice at Karki’s official residence on the CIAA premises at Tangal, Kathmandu.
The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing on the writ petition right after the Dashain festival.
The Supreme Court on September 17 had decided to review its previous verdict on a writ petition challenging Karki’s appointment as the CIAA chief.
Advocate Om Prakash Aryal had filed two writ petitions on May 16, 2014 -- one demanding court order to stop the then government from appointing Karki, and another demanding annulment of the appointment decision.
Aryal had claimed that Karki was not eligible candidate for the position arguing he lacked the expertise set out in the interim constitution and he also lacked high moral character as the government had taken action against him for his role to suppress the April 2006 movement.
A division bench of justices Gopal Parajuli and Om Prakash Mishra had quashed both the petitions on September 24, 2014.
