"We have not taken any formal decisions. The secretary has been asked informally to collect documents related to the cases and also submit preliminary report about the media reports," informed a member of the council.
A sting operation against Dhruba Paudel, administrative officer of the Universal Medical College, conducted by the Center for Investigative Journalism, Nepal (CIJ), has revealed that medical colleges are bribing justices and judicial staffers to influence court verdicts in their favor. In the media report, Paudel has revealed that former chief justice Damodar Prasad Sharma, and justices Gopal Parajuli and Cholendra SJB Rana were involved in underhand deals with the medical colleges and issued verdicts and orders in their favor.
"The existing legal provisions allow the Judicial Council to investigate into justices, but only the parliament reserves the right to relieve if they are found guilty. We'll use our rights in this case. Before that we will investigate into media report itself," said the council member.
Academia had been expressing doubts and dissatisfactions over those court orders that helped some medical colleges gain affiliations as well as avoid Nepal Medical Council's decision of decreasing the student quotas. During his tenure at the Patan Appellate Court and the Supreme Court in the last two years, Justice Parajuli alone has given at least four orders that benefitted medical colleges.
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