CJ Raut relents, constitutes constitutional bench

Kathmandu-  Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut finally yielded to the overwhelming views of fellow judges and constituted the new constitutional bench of the Supreme court.

CJ Raut ‘s act today–including Senior most judge Sapana Pradhan Malla, Nahakul Subedi, Til Prasad Shrestha and Binod Sharma–in the constitutional bench ends  row resulting in the constitutional issues not being heard in the apex court for the past two months.

CJ Raut refused to constitute the bench, insisting that it should be done as per the practice–lottery draw– while constituting any bench in the court and assigning them the listed cases. However, the majority of the judges, including Pradhan and Kumar Regmi, were opposed to the position taken by the CJ, insisting that constituting the constitutional bench was his obligatory duty and the constitution did not approve of the ‘lottery draw’.

It is believed that the senior-most judges along with others, took categoric stance that the CJ not constituting the constitutional bench would send across a message that the constitution is being violated by the highest judicial authority in the country.

While the SC introduced the ‘draw system’ for nearly two years now, the constitution of the constitutional bench was being done as the sole prerogative’ of the Chief Justice as mentioned in the constitution.  The constitutional bench is always presided by the CJ.

According to the  sources in the Supreme court , CJ Raut wanted to be seen ‘fair’ and therefore, favored the draw system. however, he yielded when majority was against him and the cases were either piling up  or not being attended to.