The bar-bench tussle has taken a new twist after the petitioner decided to withdraw the contempt of court charge against Nepal Bar Association (NBA) President Gopal Krishna Ghimire.

Deputy Registrar at the Supreme Court Govinda Ghimire filed the petition at the court on Monday evening demanding legal action against the NBA president.

The court administration pressed ahead with the case after the Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha-led full court concluded that Ghimire, who pointed out corruption while recommending justices, needed to be booked.

However, two days later, Ghimire, the petitioner, announced that he would withdraw the case, saying he didn’t wish to be anybody’s puppet by dragging the NBA leadership to court. Taking to Facebook, a social media platform, he praised the lawyers’ forum as an advocate for democracy.

“I haven’t been able to sleep since yesterday. The NBA is the voice of the people and an advocate of democracy. I have withdrawn the report [petition] submitted in the contempt charge against its leadership. When the court reopens, I will submit a formal statement along with my explanation. I do not wish to become anyone’s pawn,” he posted on Wednesday night.

As the 14-day Dashain holidays began on Thursday, the hearing on the petition was slated for October 17.

It was deputy registrar Ghimire who had filed a contempt of court charge against the editor and the publisher of sidhakura.com, an online news platform. An extended full bench led by Shrestha convicted them on September 29.

A day later, the full court concluded the NBA president needed legal action.

On September 27, the Judicial Council nominated two high court chief judges as Supreme Court justices despite lawyers’ sit-in on the council premises, protesting against the nominations. Ghimire, the NBA president, had criticised the nominations, accusing the council of selecting the two judges in exchange for money.

“The manner in which the nominations were made clearly shows there have been financial dealings,” he had told the Post. He made similar statements on other public forums too.

The five-member Judicial Council, led by the chief justice, nominates judges and justices. The council includes the law minister, the senior-most Supreme Court justice, and two advocates—one each picked by the association and the government.

The association has been staging regular protests since the council revised its regulations in September last year, adjusting the judges’ rankings. According to the amendment published in the Nepal Gazette on September 20 last year, the chief registrar of the Supreme Court or the council secretary, if appointed a high court judge, would be ranked immediately below the chief judge of the high court.

The association has demanded the provision be revoked, describing it as regressive, biassed, discriminatory, arbitrary, and unconstitutional and arguing that it contradicts the principles established by the Supreme Court’s verdicts. It claims that the amended regulations unfairly demote judges appointed from among lawyers, placing them below career judges in the hierarchy.

In response to the protests, the judiciary’s leadership constituted a five-member committee on September 2 to settle the matter through dialogue. Prakash Man Singh Raut, the senior-most justice of the Supreme Court, led the committee.

The committee, however, failed to reach a compromise as the lawyers’ umbrella body stood firm in its demand to revert the changes.

Ram Prasad Bhandari, a member of the council; Ghimire, the NBA president; Anjita Khanal, general secretary of the NBA; and Yam Bahadur Budha, secretary at the council, were members of the panel.

The Raut-led panel failed to resolve the dispute. Raut and Bhandari disagreed with the association’s demand to revoke the amendment, while Budha remained neutral. As a result, two separate reports were presented to Shrestha—one from the Raut-led faction, and the other by Ghimire and Khanal. The NBA had been regularly staging protests until September 27 until the justices were nominated.

During his parliamentary hearing for the chief justice, Raut on Tuesday assured lawmakers of finding a resolution to the deadlock.