Donor-funded programs still continue in judiciary

KATHMANDU, July 21: Last year in April, at a meeting of the Judicial Council, Minister for Law and Justice Narahari Acharya started a new debate when he stated that the judiciary and the legislative should be free from donor funding. "The government is ready to provide adequate budget to improve the efficiency of the judiciary but the judiciary should not accept foreign aids," Acharya had told the media then.

More than a year later, the newly appointed Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha attended an interaction program between judiciary and journalists on Sunday that was a part of RoLHR Program, the UNDP-funded program aimed at overall strengthening of the judiciary.Meanwhile, it seems that the minister himself has forgotten the debate he had initiated. The government has allocated only 0.48 percent of the total budget in the fiscal year 2015/16 despite repeated requests from the judiciary to allocate at least 1 percent of the total budget to help it execute its strategic plans.

Following the budget speech last Tuesday, Supreme Court has expressed dissatisfaction over the low budget allocation stating that it could hamper the execution of the plans for judicial reform and promoting judicial access as per the Third Strategic Plan of the Judiciary.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been supporting the Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights Protection System in Nepal, known as RoLHR Programme, focusing on strengthening the coordination among multiple actors involved in justice administration, supporting to capacitate the office of Attorney General, Judgment Execution Directorate, the court officials and providing technical as well as logistics support to the entire court system in Nepal. The project has been assisting the Supreme Court on implementing the strategic plans of the judiciary.

Likewise, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Supreme Court have been implementing 'project for strengthening the capacity of court for expeditious and reliable dispute settlement' after a survey conducted by JICA in 2012 found that the delay in case management was one of the main challenges plaguing Nepal's judicial system.

"The Supreme Court has not accepted any foreign aids itself. The existing projects are executed as per the agreements between the Ministry of Finance and the concerned donor agencies," said Shreekanta Paudel, the registrar at the Supreme Court.

Traditionally, judiciary and legislature in many countries do not accept foreign aids.

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