The tenure of the House of Representatives ends at midnight on Saturday. That will leave the impeachment motion against suspended Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana inconclusive.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari, on the recommendation of the Cabinet, prorogued the ongoing House session effective from Saturday midnight. However, the Impeachment Recommendation Committee is yet to complete Rana’s interrogation. The committee on Friday was preparing to ask him supplementary questions based on his answers to their set of 43 questions and to write the final report.

However, CPN-UML lawmakers said supplementary questions can be asked only after Rana verifies the verbatim transcript of the five-day long questioning. They stressed that only signed documents have legal significance. The committee has prepared a 174-page verbatim transcript of Rana’s replies, of which only 66 pages could be verified on Friday as the officials had to read out every page to Rana.

“We have asked Rana to study the report on his own and submit it to the committee tomorrow [Saturday] morning. We don’t need to read the transcript to him if he reads it himself,” Min Bishwakarma, a Nepali Congress member on the committee, told the Post. “The committee will ask him cross questions before finalising the report.”

However, lawmakers from the opposition parties have argued that the committee shouldn’t write a report without carrying out a full investigation into Rana. They claim that the committee should investigate all the charges made against him in the impeachment motion as well as the serious allegations Rana has made in the course of defending himself.

As many as 98 lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and the CPN (Unified Socialist) on February 13 had brought the impeachment motion against Rana, levelling 21 charges against him. Promoting corruption in the judiciary, interfering in the appointment of justices and judges, bargaining for a share in the Cabinet, passing controversial decisions in several cases and failing to perform his constitutional duties are some of the allegations.

“The allegations must be established with concrete evidence. After all, it is about removing the head of one of the state organs—the judiciary,” Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, a member of the committee from the UML, told the Post.

“We are not in a position to complete our probe as the ruling parties kept the motion on hold for months. By the time the investigation started, the countdown of the lower house’s expiry had already begun.

She said that the maximum the committee can do before the House term ends is ask him cross questions. The ruling party members, however, want to start writing the report and submit it to the Parliament Secretariat. Laxmi Gautam, secretary for the committee, said they have been told that the report will be finalised and submitted on Saturday after asking cross questions to Rana and studying his property details.

The committee on Thursday had directed the Judicial Council to submit Rana’s property details following allegations that he was involved in a massive corruption in the judiciary. The committee members and the people from the legal fraternity have been accusing Rana of promoting ‘bench-shopping’ in the judiciary.

As per the property details, Rana has around Rs6 million in savings, and loans amounting to Rs95 million. He has 1.8 ropanis of land registered in his wife’s name, which was bought two years ago for Rs82.6 million.

Ruling party lawmakers say they will try to finalise the report unanimously. However, it will be endorsed through a vote if the UML disagrees. The ruling parties have seven members in the 11-strong committee while the UML has four.

“The report will be prepared and submitted on Saturday at any cost,” said Bishwakarma. “However, it will not be presented for voting. The next House will decide on the motion.”