Contempt of Court Petition Filed Against Two Judges of Patan High Court

A contempt of court petition has been registered at the Supreme Court against two judges of the Patan High Court.

Vivek Chaudhary, a law student studying at Nepal Law Campus under Tribhuvan University, filed the petition demanding action for contempt of court against Patan High Court judges Rishi Raj Bhandari and Gopal Prasad Bastola. The case is scheduled for hearing on Chaitra 18.

The petition alleges that the High Court made a decision while hearing the case, failing to adhere to the binding legal principles established by the Supreme Court. Chaudhary claims that despite clearly mentioning the legal principles established by various Supreme Court decisions in his writ petition, the verdict disregarded those principles.

According to the petition, a writ petition was filed in the High Court seeking to nullify the act of the Metropolitan Police and Traffic Police applying 'wheel locks' to vehicles, arguing that this action lacked a legal basis. However, the court dismissed the writ petition, stating that given the limited resources for traffic management, the use of 'wheel locks' could not be deemed illegal.

The petition mentions that the Supreme Court has established principles in various cases such as "no body can exercise authority unless explicitly granted by law," and "every organ of the state must act under the rule of law," alleging that these principles were deliberately ignored.

Article 128(4) of the Constitution of Nepal clearly stipulates that the legal principles established by the Supreme Court must be followed by everyone. The petition claims that disregarding these principles by a lower court in such a situation is not merely a judicial error but an act of contempt of court.