After the resumption of communication with Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, who had earlier hinted that he wanted a graceful exit, the justices of the Supreme Court have returned to bench but only to see habeas corpus writs for now.

According to the justices, they have returned to the bench from today because Chief Justice Rana has agreed to their proposal to allocate benches for justices only for habeas corpus and not allocate any case for himself.

Following their suggestion, the chief justice on Monday allocated only six benches with one each writ of habeas corpus and refrained from allocating writ for himself.

“We have resumed the bench after the chief justice agreed on our proposal. He has also agreed to refrain from hearing as demanded by the Nepal Bar Association,” one of the 16 justices present on Monday told the Post. “Chief Justice Rana has expressed his will for a graceful exit during the meeting with our three justices who met him on Sunday.”

However, the justice said Chief Justice Rana has not disclosed his modality for his ‘graceful’ exit plan.

“We are waiting for his proposal of a graceful exit plan,” the justice told the Post.

The justices will only hear the habeas corpus writ until the time the chief justice comes up with his proposal for the exit plan. They will then discuss the proposal and try to find a solution to the ongoing deadlock in the judiciary that started last week.

The three justices—Anil Kumar Singha, Sapana Pradhan Malla and Manoj Kumar Sharma—who had a meeting with Chief Justice Rana on Sunday had briefed the other justices on Monday. As many as 16 justices were present on Monday since two justices, Ishwor Khatiwada and Tej Bahadur KC, are on leave. Another justice, Nahakul Subedi, has taken leave from Friday.

In light of its Friday decision, Nepal Bar Association, the umbrella organisation of lawyers in the country, started a sit-in protest from Sunday. They continued their protest on Monday as well from 10:30 am to 11:30 am.