Valley
IG appointment hearing postponed sine die
The final hearing on a case related to the appointment of chief of Nepal Police, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed sine die.The final hearing on a case related to the appointment of chief of Nepal Police, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed sine die.
The postponement comes days after lawmakers from the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) registered an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Sushila Karki, who had scheduled the final hearing for Tuesday.
Karki stands suspended following the registration of the impeachment motion.
The Supreme Court was expected to hear the case filed by DIG Nawaraj Silwal, who had moved the apex court on April 11, challenging the government decision to appoint Prakash Aryal as the inspector general.
After Karki’s suspension, Gopal Parajuli is leading the Supreme Court as acting chief justice.
Police chief appointment issue first reached the apex court on February 12-the day the Cabinet appointed DIG Jaya Bahadur Chand was promoted to the post of inspector general.
Then also DIG Silwal had moved the SC against the government decision. A little over a month later, the apex court on March 21 quashed the government decision of appointing Chand as the chief of Nepal Police and ruled that DIG Silwal as the seniormost official and with highest work performance scores should be promoted.
The government, however, on April 11 picked Aryal as the new police chief, following which Silwal again went to the court.
Silwal, in his April 11 petition, has argued that there have been irregularities in performance appraisal. However, a forensic report of Nepal Police says Silwal had doctored his performance evaluation report.
A verdict on the case on Tuesday could have cleared the mystery surrounding the performance appraisal and claims and counter-claims that have surfaced over the past weeks.
No date has been fixed for the next hearing.