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Judges debar Bar president from practice for six months

In a dramatic decision, judges have banned Nepal Bar President (NBA) president Bishwo Kanta Mainali from taking part in legal hearing in courts across the country for the next six months.

The harsh decision from the judges has come in response to a remark attributed to Mainali where he termed judges as corrupt.

The decision was made following the meeting of the full court on Thursday. It termed Mainali's remarks as 'objectionable and misleading.'

The judges of district and appellate courts of capital valley had, on Thursday, boycotted hearing for two hours between 10 am and 12 noon, Thursday, to protest Mainali's remarks.

Meanwhile, Mainali had said that he did not mean to belittle judiciary. "The NBA is quite aware about the importance of judiciary in this transitional phase. As its president, I cannot even imagine about belittling or soiling the prestige of judiciary," Bishwo Kanta Mainali told Nepal FM on Thursday morning.

"What I said was that in existing laws, a judge is not made criminally liable for corruption. I said that the judicial council should work to bring the judges within the system of accountability. And I said that if that does not happen then a position of judge becomes like a license for corruption. And I stand by what I said," Mainali had said.

Following the decision of the full court to ban him for six months, Mainali said it was a autocratic decision taken without allowing him to clarify himself.

This episode marks the beginning of a new round of dispute between bar and bench. nepalnews.com sd Sep 18 08