SC Issues Show Cause to Cabinet

Kathmandu, Dec 5-The Supreme Court (SC) today issued show cause notices to the government, vice-chairmen of the Council of Ministers and some ministers seeking their explanations on why the government had not implemented its (SC’s) order to make necessary arrangements for the promotion of the disabled.

A single bench of Justice Anup Raj Sharma issued the order to the Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet, Vice-Chairmen of the Council of Ministers Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista, Minister for Education of Sports Radha Krishna Mainali and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Niranjan Kumar Thapa.

The bench told the defendants to furnish their written replies within seven days on why a contempt of court action should not initiated against them. The order was issued in response to a contempt of court case filed by chairman of the Indigenous Human Rights Concern Centre, Deepak Kumar Rai, and general-secretary, Shree Prasad Budathoki. They accused the defendants of not implementing the verdict issued last year to promulgate a law to uplift the Dalits, indigenous nationalities and other backward communities.

The duo filed the petition after the government didn’t formulate law on the issue and bring into effect the plan of providing 20% reservation to women, 15% to the Dalits and 10% to indigenous and ethnic communities, which it introduced some three years ago.

The petitioners claimed that even after the apex court directives the government was not paying attention to implement the verdict. The apex court last year had directed the government to promulgate a law to provide facilities to the disabled and backward communities from the current fiscal year and to allocate budget for the same.