Leaders near accord on constitutional court

KATHMANDU, March 10: Members of the subcommittee formed under the Constitutional Committee (CC) of the Constituent Assembly (CA) are near consensus in forming a constitutional court and entrust it with the final authority to interpret the constitution and laws.



Though the leaders in the subcommittee formed to settle the disputes in statute-drafting reached the understanding at a meeting on Thursday but did not take any formal decision to this effect because UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal were absent. [break]



"We are near consensus in forming the constitutional court and mandate it with the authority to interpret the constitution," said UML CA member Agni Kharel, who is also a member of the subcommittee headed by Dahal.



According to leaders, almost all members in the subcommittee have agreed to appoint the chief justice as head of the constitutional court. Though the leaders are yet to define the jurisdiction of such a court, they have deemed that the court can be entrusted with the responsibility of looking into constitutional issues, inter-province disputes and rows between a province and the federal government, among other issues.



Nepali Congress (NC) leaders are still arguing that forming a special bench within the Supreme Court (SC) to look into constitutional issues would be appropriate instead of forming a separate court parallel to the SC. "But NC leaders are flexible on the issue," Kharel said.



Maoists were earlier insisting that a special committee under parliament should be the final authority to interpret the statute and laws.



"It is most likely that we will agree on forming a constitutional court because the Maoist leaders have asserted that they would backtrack on their original stance if the NC sticks to its position of entrusting only the SC all the rights," said a leader.



Earlier, top leaders in the high-level taskforce formed to settle the disputes had agreed in principle to ensure independent judiciary in the new constitution, but they later disputed over formation of the bodies to appoint chief justices and heads and members of the constitutional bodies. At present, the constitutional council headed by the prime minister is entrusted with that responsibility.



Maoist proposed that the speaker of the parliament should be the head of such a body similar to the constitutional council.



Leaders from CPN-UML, Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) Upendra Yadav and other Madhes-based parties are positive about the idea of forming a constitutional court.

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