Majority of Nepal House panel recommends impeaching suspended Chief Justice
Sep 17, 2022
Kathmandu [Nepal], September 18 : The majority members of the Impeachment Recommendation Committee have recommended impeaching Nepal's suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana.
The 11 membered impeachment panel formed by the lower house on Saturday completed its investigation and submitted it to House Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota. The submitted report has been endorsed by six members while the remaining five have differed citing reasons.
Those differing from the report are from opposition CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP). Opposition CPN-UML has put forth an eight-point difference in the impeachment panel's report claiming the report of the panel could not be accepted as it resembled the intent of the alliance.
Impeachment panel Chairman Ram Bahadur Bista is entrusted with the task of making the final decision to impeach Rana. His vote decides whether Rana gets impeached or not. However, Chair Bista has not taken any decision as of yet.
It has been said that the new parliament that will be formed after the November 20 election will take a decision on Rana's suspension. Bista said the committee will decide that the impeachment proceedings will be continued by the next parliament and continue the suspension, citing an example of India dating back three decades.
On February 1, as many as 98 MPs registered a general indictment against Rana, saying that he was against the power coalition. In March, the impeachment was tabled in the Parliament and an 11-member recommendation committee was formed.
