The hearing on the contempt of court case against Kantipur ended inconclusively at the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday. A full bench of SC headed by Chief Justice (CJ) Gopal Prasad Parajuli has been hearing the case. 

The hearing concluded for the day when Advocate Toya Nath Dhungana, who had filed the lawsuit, was presing his argument today.

Dhungana had lodged a contempt of court case against Kantipur after the daily published news reports about the questions raised about the inconsistencies in CJ Parajuli's birth date mentioned in official documents and academic qualifications.

Meanwhile, in what appeared a blatant disregard to the widespread condemnation, Chief Justice (CJ) Gopal Parajul formed a seven-member full bench under his leadership comprising of justices Om Prakash Mishra, Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, Deepak Kumar Karki, Kedar Prasad Chalise, Sarada Prasad Ghimire and Tej Bahadur KC.

Earlier, CJ's Parajuli's move to forward the case involving himself to his own bench and issue an order had drawn a widespread condemnation for it was against the principles of natural justice.

After hearing statements from Kantipur Publications Chairman and Managing Director Kailash Sirohiya, Director Swastika Sirohiya, Kantipur daily Editor-in-Chief Sudheer Sharma and reporter Krishna Gyawali on Tuesday, a division bench of Justices Baman Kumar Shrestha and Dambar Bahadur Shahi had referred the case to the full bench of SC.

Kantipur members, in their written statements furnished before the SC bench, asserted that the Kantipur has respect for the court and the news about Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli published in the daily had not dishonoured the court. National and international journalists’ bodies have condemned CJ Parajuli’s move, calling it a clear case of ‘prior censorship’ and against the principle of natural justice which demands that the chief justice stay away from the case involving himself.

In an interim order on February 25, CJ Parajuli had directed the Press Council Nepal to probe the news reports published by Kantipur daily regarding discrepancies in his birth date in official documents.