RNA is Powerful than SC

Kathmandu, Nov 5-Even after several apex court orders and a warning to take contempt of court action, neither the Royal Nepalese Army nor the ministry of Foreign Affairs has furnished a copy of the agreement between the government and the UN on the peacekeeping force of the Royal Nepalese Army.
“The Ministry is yet to produce the document,” a court official told the himalaya times reports. According to him, citing this, the court administration would table the case before the bench on November 18 for further action against the Ministry.

On August 23, a division bench of Justices Anup Raj Sharma and Sharada Prasad Pundit had directed the Ministry to furnish a copy of the agreement within 15 days or face contempt of court action.

Before the August 23 order, the court had, several times, directed the ministry and the Headquarters of the Royal Nepalese Army to furnish the copy. “We will file an additional contempt of court case as the court has already taken the issue seriously,” said Rana Bahadur Thebe, lawyer of Ex-Army Welfare Council chairman Ambar Bahadur Thapa Magar, who had filed the petition four years ago. The petitioner had sought the apex court order to the government and the RNA to make public the expenditure of the Welfare Fund of RNA. He had also accused the RNA high-ranking officials of misusing the fund.

Thapa Magar had filed the petition seeking facilities as per the agreement between the RNA and the UN and accused the RNA of not providing facilities as per the agreement to RNA personnel deployed for peacekeeping jobs.

The Ministry had some months ago written to the court that it would produce the copy of the agreement immediately after getting it from the Nepal’s Permanent Mission to United Nations, New York, as it had written to the mission to provide a copy. The Ministry and the RNA, while responding to the show cause notices, had initially claimed that they had not made any agreement with the UN for such deployment, but later said though they signed an agreement with the UN, copies were not available.

When contacted the spokesperson of the Ministry, Shankar Brairagi, said he couldn’t speak on a matter which is sub-judice.

How ever, Legal Department Chief of RNA, Brigadier General BA Kumar Sharma, said the RNA had, about a year ago, given details regarding the use of the fund. “We have no intention to disrespect the court order. About a copy of the agreement between the UN and the government, he said it is the duty of the Foreign Ministry to explain to the court. He said the army does not have a copy of the agreement.