Valley
Chief justice takes charge
Four months after her nomination, Sushila Karki formally took charge as the chief justice of the Supreme Court on Monday, becoming the first woman to head Nepal’s judiciary.Four months after her nomination, Sushila Karki formally took charge as the chief justice of the Supreme Court on Monday, becoming the first woman to head Nepal’s judiciary.
She will hold the position for nine months at a time when the apex court has a backlog of over 20,000 cases. “She is a capable, dedicated, sincere and brave justice,” said Ram Kumar Shrestha, a former chief justice. “I’m sure she will be able to solve the anomalies in the judiciary, boosting public trust in the court.”
Shrestha knew Karki ever since she started her career as a law practitioner in Dharan.
“She was a talented lawyer even then,” said Shrestha, who was the zonal judge in 1985.
Born in June, 1952 in Biratnagar, Karki joined the apex court as an ad-hoc justice. She became a permanent justice in 2010.
In her eight-year tenure at the court, Karki proved herself as a person of integrity and courage. She upheld zero tolerance against corruption, evidently that she jailed two ministers on graft charges.
A bench including Karki had ordered the government not to provide amnesty for CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Bal Krishna Dhungel, who was convicted of murdering Ujjan Kumar Shrestha of Okhaldhunga during the insurgency.
The bench had ruled out the decision of the then government led by Baburam Bhattarai to pardon Dhungel for the crime.