The impeachment motion was brought against the Chief Justice
In these circumstances, the case of the Chief Justice (Chief Justice) has come to the fore as a challenge to Nepalese politics. Chief Justice Chaulendra Shamsher Jabra was impeached 7 months ago in the House of Representatives on February 13 by 5 parties including the ruling Nepali Congress, Maoist, Unified Socialist. But the term of the current Parliament ended without taking that impeachment motion to its logical conclusion. This is the root of all this controversy.
The term of the Parliament was over even before the resolution was passed.
With the impeachment motion being introduced in Parliament, Chief Justice Jabra was suspended from his post under the provisions of the Constitution. But as soon as the term of Parliament ends, he has staked his claim to be reinstated in this post. He sent a message to the Supreme Court administration on Saturday evening that ‘I will come to the court as Chief Justice from Sunday’. He argues that the Parliament in which the impeachment motion was brought is no longer a Parliament, so the motion automatically becomes infructuous.
Now the next parliament will take a decision on impeachment
Conversely, the government and the parties involved say that a parliamentary committee has upheld Jabra’s impeachment and that he is still under suspension. The next parliament will decide on his impeachment. Jabra is to retire three months later on December 27. Till the government wants, he cannot sit in the court.
A large number of policemen deployed outside the Chief Justice
On Sunday, the government deployed a large number of security personnel outside his official residence after receiving a message of Jabra to move the court. “The government has put us under house arrest,” Jabra alleged. This has also attracted the attention of the National Human Rights Commission. The commission has raised objections to the increased security deployment at Jabra’s house. But the government is saying that this arrangement has been made in view of their safety.
Under the pressure of the Chief Justice, PM Deuba also made a person a minister.
Keep in mind, on July 12 last year, on the orders of a bench headed by Jabra, the then Prime Minister Oli was out of the government and Deuba became the Prime Minister. Chief Justice Jabra had sought a share in the Deuba cabinet. Under his pressure, Deuba had included a person named Gajendra Bohra in his cabinet. He was neither an MP nor a well-known name in politics. His specialty was only that he was a close relative of Jabra.
Judges refuse to share bench with Chief Justice
Its response was seen both in court and in politics. There was a demand for the resignation of Chief Justice Jabra. In October a majority of Supreme Court judges refused to share the bench with Jabra. The Bar Association also started a movement against him. The work of the Supreme Court was affected for four months due to the ongoing agitation against Jabra surrounded by all the allegations.
Chief Justice refuses to resign
The pressure on the government was increasing. There were three options. One, the Chief Justice Jabra should resign. Two, they should be impeached in Parliament. Three, the judge and lawyer start working with Jabra. Jabra was not agreeable to the first option and the third option was not acceptable to the rest of the judges and lawyers. After all, 98 MPs from the parties involved in the government presented an impeachment motion in Parliament on 13 February in protest against Chief Justice Jabra. But the government did not have the necessary two-thirds majority to pass an impeachment motion. So, the matter has reached this point.
(The author is the Delhi Bureau Chief of Nepal’s Kantipur Media Group)