Bank officials seek impeachment motion against Justices

Senior officials and legal advisors of various banks have urged the parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) to file impeachment motion against two Justices for controversial verdict on Mahalaxmi Sugar Limited.

Taking part on Thursday's meeting of the PAC, they claimed that Justices Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet were responsible for encouraging willful defaulters by issuing verdict in favour of willful defaulters.

The Justices duo on January 18 issued an order to remove the names of six persons including Binod Kumar Chaudhari from the black list in the Mahalaxmi Sugar Limited case.

Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, told the PAC that the apex court verdict had supported the practice of bank defaulting, adding a number of bank loan defaulters have moved the Supreme Court against several banks after the SC set a precedent by ordering removal of Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills from the defaulter's black list.

He said 13 petitions have already been filed in the SC against the Rastra Bank and similar trend has been seen in other banks as well.

Similarly, legal advisor of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Purnaman Shakya, and of the Nepal Bank Limited, Jogendra Keshari Ghimire, urged the PAC to take concrete steps to impeach the judges who issued the controversial verdict to safeguard the financial sector in future.

Responding to their concerns, chairman of PAC, Chitra Bahadur KC said "We will decide to take appropriate steps against Justices on October 17 after holding a meeting with all the members of the PAC."

He said the committee does not intend to tarnish the image of the independent judiciary or challenge its supremacy, but it simply wants to take action against judges who issued a wrong verdict in the case.

Justice Singh retired a few months ago, Justice Basnet is retiring after two weeks. nepalnews.com pb Oct 13 06

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