Constitutional Council meeting to sit for next round to decide CJ appointment

KATHMANDU: A meeting of the Constitutional Council held today in Singha Durbar discussed about the appointment of Chief Justice, but failed to reach a conclusion.

Though the appointment of CJ was the single agenda of the meeting held under the Chair of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, no substantive decision was made, according to National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina. The meeting agreed to sit for a next round of dialogue for the decision.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Purna Bahadur Khadka, said the meeting discussed about the agenda in regard with the appointment of CJ, but could not reach to a conclusion. The issue will be finalized by a next meeting and its schedule is yet to be fixed.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire, NA Chair Timilsina, House of Representatives (HoR) opposition leader KP Sharma Oli, Deputy Speaker Indira Rana, Deputy Prime Minister Khadka and Chief Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi were among those attending the meeting.

In accordance with the Article 284 of the Constitution, the Constitutional Council is for making recommendation in accordance with this constitution for appointment of Chief Justice, the chief and officials of constitutional bodes, consisting of Chairperson and members.

The Prime Minister is the Chairperson and Chief Justice, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chairperson of the National Assembly, the leader from the Opposition Party in House of Representatives and Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives are the members of the Council. When the position of the Chief Justice falls vacant and a recommendation has to be made for the same, the Minister for Justice shall be present in the Constitutional Council as a member. The Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal shall function as the secretary of the Constitutional Council.

Earlier, a meeting among the three political parties including the Prime Minister and Speaker held on Sunday agreed to recommend the name of new CJ from the Council meeting and the meeting was summoned by the Prime Minister accordingly. The post of CJ has been lying vacant for months. RSS