KATHMANDU, June 9: The justices assigned earlier to the Constitutional Bench are set to remain there to conduct hearings on the case of parliament dissolution even as the government lawyers demanded that Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana remove two justices from the bench.
Chief Justice Rana has formed a Constitutional Bench comprising four senior most justices at the Supreme Court. The justices picked for the Constitutional Bench include Deepak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai.
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The lawyers representing the government had earlier demanded reconstituting the Constitutional Bench, arguing that Khatiwada and Dr Bhattarai had already made their opinion about the parliament dissolution case. The lawmakers representing the government had argued that they are not convinced of getting justice from them.
The hearing on the parliament dissolution case was put off for two days after Chief Justice Rana was taken ill. Chief Justice Rana on Wednesday rejected the demand put forth by petitioners representing the government and announced that the same bench would continue hearings on the parliament dissolution case.
On the occasion, Justice Khatiwada said that they were given the responsibility to conduct hearings on the case through a mere coincidence. He also asked the petitioners not to raise questions about the integrity of justices in the future.
"We have got a number of experiences in the course of these disputes. There are many kinds of experiences. We have received new experiences. There are adequate special rights that we can say," he said. "Constitutionally, there is no alternative to chief justice in the constitutional bench. We, the remaining justices, are on the same boat. Now, we will move forward. Let there be no attempt to drive us away from the bench."
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