CC meeting likely to pick new CJ

The meeting of the Constitutional Council is likely to take place on Thursday in order to start the process of nominating new Chief Justice as the current CJ is going to retire soon.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who chairs the powerful council, has called the meeting on Thursday.

The current CJ Dilip Kumar Poudel is going to retire on September 7. There are five aspirants for the top judiciary job including Kedar Prasad Giri, Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Ram Prasad Shrestha and Khil Raj Regmi. Giri is at the top of the race due to his seniority.

The CC meeting is also expected to take up the issue of appointing members of National Human Rights Commission and commissioners at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

As per the Article 149 of the Interim Constitution, CC will be responsible for appointment of chiefs and members of constitutional bodies. As per the article, the CC will be chaired by Prime Minister and will count Speaker of the parliament, Chief Justice and three ministers designated by the PM as its members. When appointing new CJ, Minister for Justice will also be present in the CC meeting as a member.

Meanwhile, reports say that the cabinet meeting, too, is expected to take place on Thursday to pick 27 secretaries and 18 ambassadors. While the nominations of ambassadors have been finalised, the process of picking 27 secretaries out of 81 nominees by the administration sub-committee of the cabinet has still not been finalised. nepalnews.com sd Aug 30 07