Hearing on Lalita Niwas case involving former PMs Nepal and Bhattarai postponed

Kathmandu, February 13 — In the Lalita Niwas land case, the hearing scheduled for former Prime Ministers Madhav Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai on corruption was postponed on Thursday. 

The hearing was set before a joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Til Prasad Shrestha and Nityananda Pandey.

However, the proceedings could not take place as the necessary case files did not arrive from the district court, as informed by the petitioner, Balkrishna Neupane. 

After the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority decided not to pursue the case against Nepal and Bhattarai, senior lawyer Neupane filed a writ petition challenging that decision.

Neupane had filed the writ on February 12, 2020, requesting the Supreme Court to order the filing of corruption charges against Nepal and Bhattarai for their involvement in the illegal transfer of government land at Lalita Niwas.

CIAA had decided not to pursue the case after concluding that the two former Prime Ministers were only involved in policy-level decisions.

(We apologize for the mistake in the previous news where it was mentioned that the hearing had taken place. This has been corrected. – Editor)