The Judicial Council on Sunday transferred all the judges of the Appellate Courts to the newly formed High Courts, following the constitutional requirement to dissolve the appeals courts within a year of promulgation of the new constitution.

Parliament last week endorsed three Acts for transforming the Appellate Courts into High Courts. In a further step in implementing the Constitution of Nepal, the government on Wednesday fixed the headquarters of the High Courts in each of the seven provinces while nearly half of the mid-level courts were transformed as the extended benches of the respective High Courts.

Among the 16 Appellate Courts, nine were designated as the extended benches while the government also added two benches in Birgunj and Okhaldunga.

According to Devendra Raj Dhakal, spokesperson for the Judicial Council, Tej Bahadur KC has been appointed as the chief judge of Biratnagar High Court in Province 1, Surendra Singh Bashnyat as the acting chief judge in Janakpur of Province 2 while Tek Bahadur Moktan heads the Patan High Court in Province 3.

Purushottam Bhandari, Bam Bahadur Shrestha and Dambar Shahi have been appointed as chief judges to the High Courts in Provinces 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Prakash Dhungana is the acting chief judge of the Dipayal High Court in Province 7.

Article 139 of the constitution says “there shall be a High Court in each state”. Article 300 (3) reads: “High Courts set forth in Article 139 shall be established no later than one year after the date of commencement of this constitution, and the Appellate Courts existing at the time of commencement of this constitution shall be dissolved after the establishment of such courts”.

There were 80 judges in the Appellate Courts compared to the 160 posts of judges in High Courts. According to Dhakal, the appointment of the remaining 80 judges would be made shortly.