The ruling coalition on Sunday registered an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Cholendra Shumsher Rana at the Federal Parliament Secretariat saying that he was not serious about resolving the problems plaguing the judiciary. It was a bold step to bring the important state organ back on track. A total of 98 lawmakers from ruling parties supported to impeach Rana, accusing him of eroding credibility of the judiciary and misusing it for his personal interest. The lawmakers belong to the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist. The motion is in line with Article 101 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015.

Article 101 has a provision for one-fourth of the total members of the House of Representatives (HoR), the lower House of the Federal Parliament, to file an impeachment motion against any official holding a constitutional position on the ground of failing to perform duty effectively or working against the constitution or seriously violating their code of conduct. With the registration of this motion, Rana has been suspended as the CJ. Senior-most justice Deepak Kumar Karki has assumed his responsibility as an acting CJ.

In the motion, the lawmakers have labelled as many as 21 allegations against Rana. With a bad track record, Rana has been blamed for issuing various controversial verdicts undermining the norms and values of the free and fair judiciary. Over the past couple of months, Rana has been blamed for being unable to set up a fair, competent and responsible system in the apex court. He could make the much-needed reforms in the judiciary despite repeated calls for that from different segments of the society. Even amidst the surfacing of numerous grave issues in the judiciary, the government had not interfered in it directly, thinking that the SC leadership would address them. But instead of taking necessary steps towards enhancing trustworthiness of the judiciary and protecting its dignity and sanctity, CJ Rana was found taking unwanted moves aiming at paralysing the entire institution.

The Nepal Bar Association (NBA), civil society members and different political parties have been demanding that Rana quit his post. NBA has been staging a series of protests on the SC premises against him. Even the SC judges had refused to share benches with him. Despite facing a lot of pressure from different quarters, Rana was not in favour of giving an outlet. As per the constitutional provision, the impeachment motion requires a two-thirds majority of the HoR to be passed. At present, there are 271 members in the HoR. The ruling alliance does not have sufficient members in the Lower House of the Federal Parliament. So, the motion is unlikely to be passed without the support from the main opposition CPN-UML.

It is unfortunate that the UML has decided not to join hands with the ruling alliance in this connection. To be a responsible opposition, the party must leave no stone unturned when it comes to dealing with the anomalies seen in the judiciary. Speaker of the HoR Agni Prasad Sapkota has initiated the process of forwarding the motion. On Monday, Sapkota called an all-party meeting to discuss the matter. Meanwhile, chairman of the CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda said that the impeachment motion was filed against the CJ after forging a consensus among the coalition forces as it was aimed at ending the longstanding deadlock in the SC.