PAC decides to review SC verdict

The Public Accounts Committee meeting held on wednesday to examine the reasons for the Supreme Court verdict on Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills bank loan defaulting case has sparked a confrontation between the MPs and the legal experts.

The MPs said they would investigate the issue, as the verdict violated the rule of law and lacked public accountability, while the lawyers warned them not to interfere in the independence of judiciary.

The lawyers advised the MPs to initiate impeachment process against the particular judge if they found any judge involved in any irregularity.
The president of the Nepal Bar Association, Shambhu Thapa, said the PAC action was an attack on the independence of the judiciary. He challenged the MPs to promulgate a separate act with a provision to review SC verdicts by the House. “If you promulgate such an act to review the verdict, the apex court can examine even that decision,” he added.

Thapa, who is a member of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee, claimed that the issue had affected the drafting of the interim constitution.
MPs, on the other hand, say the verdict was a hurdle in recovering Rs 1.38 billion bank loan from the Mills.

In January, a division bench of Justices Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet had issued the verdict scrapping the decision to blacklist the Mills owned by businessman Binod Kumar Chaudhary.

The PAC members have been expressing doubts that the case was decided when Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel had gone abroad and Justice Kedar Prasad Giri was the acting CJ.

General Secretary of the NBA, Madhav Banskota said, “We had participated in Jana Andolan seeking judiciary’s independence and we would never tolerate any attack on judiciary’s independence,” he added.

Former president of the Nepal Bar Association, Harihar Dahal, said the Parliament could impeach any judge involved in corruption but could not examine the apex court verdict. He added that a separate committee in the House could be set up to investigate and initiate action against such a judge. Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade and senior advocate Sindhu Nath Pyakurel also condemned PAC action.

PAC Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC said they would even initiate action against judges involved in irregularities. “This may be a final verdict of the apex court but people can raise question, as irregularities occurred in this case,” he added. MPs Ishwor Pokhrel and Mohan Bahadur Basnet said though they did not want to attack the independence of the judiciary, they wanted to know what actually happened in the case.