JC refuses to name judges it cleared

The Judicial Council (JC) headed by Chief Justice Kedar Prasad Giri refused to disclose the names of the 85 judges who recently got its clean chit himalayan times reports .Responding to a THT letter , the JC stated that the complaints against 85 district and appellate court judges were baseless and it had decided not to proceed further on those complaints.“The job of the preliminary investigation is a secret matter in general,” the letter signed by JC’s joint secretary and spokesperson Nahakul Subedi stated.Clause three of the Right to Information Act, 2007, has made every authority responsible to make public information except what may pose a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the state, may pose a threat to rule of law and security situation, may threaten harmony between different tribes and community and may infringe on anyone’s privacy.“It is not the compulsion to make public the details of investigation on any judges as per Chapter 7 of the Judicial Council (Procedure) Regulation 1999,” the JC said in its letter to THT. “Since Article 27 has given the option to any authority not to make public the documents as per law, the JC is not compelled to disclose the names and grounds of giving clean chit to judges,” the letter stated.Commenting the JC’s stance, UML’s lawmaker Raghuji Panta told this daily that the JC should make public the names of the judges. “Since they got clean chit, it is the duty of the JC to make the judges names public as per Clause 3 of the RIA,” Panta said.