The Supreme Court has been scheduled to announce its verdict on the contempt of court case filed against the publisher and editor of Sidhakura news website on August 22.

Govinda Adhikari, information officer for the court, said that the participating advocates are given 15 days to submit their hearing notes.

An extended full bench comprising nine justices conducted the hearing on the case filed against Yubraj Kandel, the director of the website, and executive editor Nabin Dhungana, among others.

The bench comprised Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and justices Prakashman Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, Hari Prasad Phuyal, Nahakul Subedi, Vinod Sharma, Mahesh Sharma Paudel and Balkrishna Dhakal.

The website drew widespread attention after it aired an audiovisual content on April 26 claiming that the chairpersons of two leading media houses sat in a meeting with the incumbent and former Supreme Court justices and senior advocates to dismiss over 400 corruption cases in the court. The April 21, 2021 verdict was part of the deal, it had claimed. However, the court has found the claim to be baseless.

The court on April 28 had launched a suo moto contempt of court case against the publisher and the editor of the website for publishing defamatory content against one of its justices. Govinda Ghimire, a deputy registrar at the top court, filed the writ petition claiming that “serious, fabricated and misleading audiovisual content published by the website was a malicious attempt to defame the judiciary.”

A division bench of justices Kumar Chudal and Binod Sharma on June 19 forwarded the case to the extended full bench for a final hearing pointing out the need for a comprehensive judicial interpretation of freedom of expression and press freedom.

The order stated that it would be appropriate to resolve the serious questions of whether the act defames Supreme Court justices, legal professionals, the media, and other individuals by an extended full bench.

In the first week of June, the police investigation team concluded that the audio content published by the website was fake. The police then filed the case at the Kathmandu District Court.