The Supreme Court (SC) has reopened the case of appointment of Lokman Singh Karki as the chief commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, in a move that could lead to some dramatic events in coming days.

A full bench of Chief Justice Sushila Karki and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha on Friday granted permission for reviewing the SC’s earlier verdict considering two major premises regarding Karki’s appointment: his tenure in government service and constitutional provision about his moral character to head the constitutional body.

Karki was appointed under-secretary at then palace secretariat in 1984 through royal edict.

After the reinstatement of democracy in 1990, Karki joined civil service. If Karki’s earlier six-year of service is excluded, his tenure as a civil servant does not meet the required qualification to hold the position. There is a constitutional provision that one should have at least 20 years of experience in the field of accounting, revenue, engineering, law, development or research and s/he should be a distinguished person to qualify for the post.

The Rayamajhi Commission, formed immediately after the 2006 movement to investigate oppressive measures taken by then royal regime against pro-democratic protesters, had also disqualified Karki from holding any public position, citing his role as chief secretary in suppressing the democracy movement.

The Girija Prasad Koirala-led government, formed after the success of the 2006 movement, had also decided to sack him from the position of chief secretary and disqualify him from holding any public position in future “for using state apparatus against the pro-democratic protesters”.

Karki had also faced accusations that he was involved in various scandals, including a gold smuggling case, when he was working as director general at Tribhuvan International Airport.

In May 2013, a technocratic government led by then chief justice Khil Raj Regmi had appointed him as the CIAA chief. As Parliament had been dissolved at that time, his appointment did not go through parliamentary vetting.

Advocate Om Prakash Aryal had moved the court, claiming that his appointment was unconstitutional. A division bench of Justices Gopal Parajuli and Om Prakash Mishra on September 24, 2014, however, had quashed the petition.

Aryal on November 24 last year again registered an appeal at the SC, seeking a review. In response to the petition, a bench of Justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Biswambhar Shrestha and Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada on August 26 had asked the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of General Administration to present documents, including the Cabinet minute, related to Karki’s appointment.

In response, the government last week told the apex court that papers related to Karki’s appointment “were misplaced while they were shifting documents from the earthquake-ravaged building”. 

The apex court has also warned of action if the government fails to furnish the documents within seven days.

“We are hopeful that this will correct the legal error made during the earlier verdict,” said Aryal, who believes the verdict was taken without studying the documents made available.

“He was intimidating everyone to influence the court proceedings. I hope this will help reinstate fair judicial environment,” said Aryal.

CIAA opens cantonment corruption case 

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has also resumed investigation into the cases related to corruption at the former Maoist cantonments. 

Coinciding the Supreme Court decision to grant permission for revision of its earlier verdict on CIAA Chief Lokman Singh Karki, the anti-graft body in a press meet announced that it formally started investigation into the cantonment scam. 

"We have been receiving complaints against various individuals related to the corruption case," Information Officer Narayan Adhikari to the Post, "We have compiled all the complaints and start staking statements from individuals against whom we have received complaints."

The CIAA has decided to summon them within a month.

Two years ago, the CIAA had said that there were no evidences to suggest the involvement of top leaders of the then UCPN (Maoist) party. The case was dropped in absence of concrete evidence to establish involvement of leaders in the scam as claimed in the complaints.