Miscellaneous
Justice Mishra vows results
Newly appointed Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra on Monday took charge as the head of the judiciary almost six months after chief justice Gopal Parajuli was compelled to resign over his age limit issue.Newly appointed Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra on Monday took charge as the head of the judiciary almost six months after chief justice Gopal Parajuli was compelled to resign over his age limit issue.
Although CJ Mishra has only four months in office—he retires on January 1 next year—he vowed 2018 would be Decision Implementation Year. He cited poor implementation of decisions delivered by courts throughout the country, despite the third five-year strategic plan at the half way stage.
The top court will soon roll out an action plan to deliver the CJ’s Decision Implementation Year.
SC Spokesperson Bhadrakali Pokhrel said the apex court is preparing an action plan to implement the decision implementation year as announced by CJ Mishra.
Currently many cases are pending, and the courts have to ensure justice for victims of various crimes. It is a difficult task because the police have to arrest more than 100,000 convicts.
According to CJ Mishra, the courts are yet to collect overall accumulated fines of around Rs 10 billion. Further, all convicts added together are yet to be served prison terms that add up to 112,000 years because the convicts are, either at large or there is a huge backlog of cases.
In his action plan presented to the Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) on Monday, CJ Mishra vowed to take zero tolerance on corruption. He pledged strict monitoring of all activities of all tiers of the courts. His commitment to eliminate corruption comes at a time when academia, critics, the media and citizens have raised the pitch against the rampant corruption in the judiciary.
Mishra has assured prompt legal action against the erring justices after perusing complaints against them. He said the court would protect the identities of complainants and they would receive progress of their cases.
The SC would continuously monitor the justices by activating and strengthening monitoring mechanisms, he said. The top court will study various areas of the legal system that need reforms to ensure judicial integrity and speedy delivery of justice. The court will take measures necessary for this, the CJ said.
“A high-level judicial administration reforms commission is necessary to create the basis for the administrative reforms to implement the new laws put in place following the constitutional changes including civil and criminal codes,” Mishra said.
To ensure effective justice system, the new CJ vowed identifying touts of corrupt justices who fleece naïve justice-seekers and preventing them from entering courts besides taking legal actions against them.