Acting Chief Justice's Order to Register Petitions Against Proposed Chief Justice Unheeded

Kathmandu. Petitions against proposed Chief Justice Manoj Sharma have not been registered by the administration even after the order of the acting Chief Justice. Although the acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla ordered at 11 am to register the petitions against the recommendation of the Chief Justice by 1 pm, they have not been registered by 5 pm.

The petitions against the rejection could not be registered after the Chief Registrar Bimal Poudel and Registrar Man Bahadur Karki, who ordered to register them, left the Supreme Court. The head of the case registration branch at the Supreme Court, co-registrar Arjun Koirala, told Ratopati that he was in training.

Petitions are registered only on Koirala's instruction. Petitions may not be registered without his instruction. Chief Registrar Poudel has been absent from his office adjacent to the acting Chief Justice since Monday morning. An employee of the court said that he was out for a meeting. Petitioner senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi said that the petitions were not registered until 5 pm on Monday. 'Employees have left their offices, some say there is a meeting, some say there is training,' he said, 'We are in confusion.'

On Monday morning, acting Chief Justice Malla inquired about the non-registration of petitions with Chief Registrar Poudel. After that, acting Chief Justice Pradhan wrote an order stating that the Supreme Court administration and the proposed Chief Justice obstructed the registration of petitions.