Minister Dhakal yet to respond SC’s call

Kathmandu, Feb 22-Minister for Local Development Tanka Dhakal is yet to respond the Supreme Court's (SC) order to be present in person to face a contempt of court charge relating to Radio Sagarmatha 53 days after the SC issued an order in this regard.

The court had given him a 15-day deadline to comply, from the time he accepts the order.

On December 29, a single bench of Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma had ordered Minister Dhakal, then minister for Information and Communications, Secretary Kumar Poudel and under-secretary Ambar Raj Poudel to present themselves in court to explain why they ignored the SC’s order to lift ban on transmission of BBC news even after the SC’s order.

He is not accepting the order despite repeated attempts by our tamildars (process servers). At one time, Minister Dhakal turned our tamildar back saying that he would accept the order after the election (of February 8). Since the election, he has been evading the tamildars saying he is busy," said sources at the court.

However, two other officials, secretary Poudel and under-secretary Poudel presented themselves in court on Tuesday with written replies to the accusations against them.

They told the Supreme Court that they had no intention of disrespecting the court when they barred Radio Sagarmatha to air BBC news even after the SC’s order.

The two officials claimed they had not received the SC stay order against the government ban on airing news from FM radios, before they barred Radio Sagarmatha from airing BBC Nepali Service.