Taskforce urges daily hearings to clear graft case backlog

KATHMANDU, Sept 29: A high-level taskforce led by Supreme Court Justice Prakash Wasti has recommended to the apex court to hear a backlog of hundreds of corruption cases through a three-member special bench.



Altogether 423 corruption cases have been pending at the SC for the past four years.[break]



The SC had formed a taskforce to do a study and recommend suggestions how pending graft cases could be settled in a timely and effective fashion. "We are all set to submit our report to Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi on October 23," said Wasti, who however declined to comment on provisions incorporated in the ´anti-corruption strategy´.



According to a knowledgeable source, the proposed strategy has asked the CJ to form a three-member bench to hear corruption cases on a daily basis.



"Major corruption cases involving high-profile political leaders should be settled through the three-member special bench without a day´s gap," reads the report, adding, "The current trend of hearing corruption cases twice a week is ineffective, so graft cases should be taken up for hearings on a daily basis and with top priority."



The report has also recommended to the chief justice not to make postponements or set another date once a graft case is opened for hearings. "Corruption cases should be in hearings on a regular basis until the final decision," the report further states.



The anti-corruption strategy also aims at discouraging individuals ranging from notice servers to justices who try to influence the outcome of corruption cases under various pretexts.

"Justices who deliberately try to avoid handling corruption cases will have to furnish reasons in writing for not taking up such cases," states a provision under the strategy.



Justices have long been deferring graft cases, saying he/she shouldn´t be involved in settling a particular case because of possible conflict of interest. However, to date, there is no provision that requires such justices to clearly mention in writing the reasons for not looking at a particular case.



"As per the new anti-graft strategy, a justice has to state in writing through the bench assistant why he/she was unable to take up a particular corruption case," states the provision.



The SC source said such a provision will primarily discourage justices from deliberately deferring graft cases.



 The taskforce had held several meetings with SC justices, judges of the special court and judicial staff, representatives of Nepal Bar Association, journalists and notice servers, regarding the provisions to be incorporated in the strategy.



The provision also states that the SC would maintain zero tolerance for judicial staff who either deliberately put off cases or influence them by various means. As per the provision, the SC would first seek clarifications from officials who deliberately influence case proceedings. "Officials found guilty of influencing cases would first be warned. If they repeat the mistake, they would be suspended without delay," reads the provision.



"The SC won´t accept any application seeking deferral of a corruption case more than twice," states the provision.



To discourage government lawyers seeking case deferrals, the strategy aims to keep records of how many times and for what reasons they request deferrals. And to discourage private lawyers, the strategy recommends that the SC strictly implement provisions incorporated in SC regulations which state that no one can defer a particular case more than two times.

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