KATHMANDU, Dec 8: The Constitutional Council (CC) meeting scheduled for Saturday to pick a new chief justice has once again been postponed, to Tuesday.
“A letter in this regard has already been circulated to the concerning office bearers,” a knowledgeable source told Republica. The council is expected to pick new chief justice from among two candidates – seniormost justice Deepak Raj Joshee and justice Cholendra SJB Rana – whose names were forwarded to the council by the Judicial Council (JC) secretariat a few days ago.
CC fails to pick CJ, next meeting Saturday
The last meeting of the Constitutional Council could not select the successor to Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra as the leader of the main opposition Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is a member of the council, could not give sufficient time to the meeting citing busy schedule.
The council is headed by the prime minister 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.
The positions of heads and members of various constitutional bodies including Madheshi, Tharu and Inclusive commissions remain vacant for a long time although the acts related to governing the commissions have already been formulated.
Sitting chief justice Mishra is retiring on December 31 on the grounds of age.
Sources claim that Rana’s chances are high because Joshee was already rejected as chief justice by the parliamentary hearings committee on August 3.
