KATHMANDU, Dec 12: The Constitutional Council (CC) meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening for selecting new chief justice has been postponed for the third time.
“The meeting has been put off and rescheduled for December 20,” a source of the CC told Republica. According to him, Prime Minister KP Oli who is also the chairman of the council was not well so the meeting did not take place on Tuesday.
The first meeting was scheduled for December 1 and second was scheduled for December 7 but both the meetings failed to pick the successor to Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra, who is retiring on December 31 on age grounds.
The top constitutional appointing body is expected to pick new chief justice from among two candidates—seniormost justice Deepak Raj Joshee and justice Cholendra SJB Rana—whose names were already forwarded by the Judicial Council (JC) secretariat.
Sources speculated that differences between the government and the main opposition Nepali Congress, which has been demanding major shares in various constitutional bodies, for the repeated postponement of the meeting.
The council is headed by the Prime Minister Oli and its members include the main opposition leader, speaker of the lower house, chairman of the upper house, deputy speaker of the lower house and law minister as members.
The positions of heads and members of various constitutional bodies including Madheshi, Tharu and Inclusive Commissions remain vacant for a long time although the laws related to govern the commissions have already been promulgated.
Sources claimed that Rana's chances are high because Joshee was already rejected as chief justice by the parliamentary hearings committee on August 3.