PAC asks lawyers to submit proof for initiating impeachment process against justices

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has asked lawyers to submit valid grounds, based on which impeachment process against the justices involve in loan default case can be initiated.

Lawmakers said that PAC would initiate an impeachment process against the SC justices, who had decided the bank loan default case in favour of the Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills, once the lawyers presented to it valid grounds based on which the process can be initiated.

The PAC had invited the lawyers to discuss the bank case Monday.

Businessmen Binod Chaudhary and Birendra Kumar Kanoudiya, who is also an MP, are the owners of the Mills.

Chairman of PAC, Chitra Bahadur KC said that the lawmakers would not let the justices go unpunished if they were found guilty of favouring the businessmen, who misused public money.

Taking part on Monday’s meeting, lawyers Purna Man Shakya, Shailendra Dahal, Prakash Wosti and Jogendra Keshari Ghimire and chairman of the Rastriya Banijya Bank, Dr Bhola Chalise, demanded that the justices who decided the Sugar Mills case be impeached, noting that they had not followed precedents and ethics.

Advocate Shakya claimed that since the judges did not follow norms, the House has valid ground to impeach them.

Earlier this year, in January, a division bench of SC justices Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet had passed the verdict revoking the earlier decision to blacklist the Mills.

This case was then taken up by the PAC after five major banks wrote a joint letter to the parliament in August demanding that Supreme Court (SC) justices duo Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet be subjected to impeachment since their decision hampered in the recovery of loans.

The banks claimed that the decision by the two judges six months ago ordering the withdrawal of Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills from the black list of willful defaulters was 'intentional' and caused losses to the tune of over Rs 1.22 billion. nepalnews.com pb Sep 19 06

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