The Supreme Court is the final refuge of the ordinary citizen in pursuit of justice. As the highest arbiter of law in the land, the Supreme Court also acts as a check on the two other branches of the government—the executive and legislative. In this regard, Nepal’s Supreme Court has traditionally been a stalwart defender of the rights of the marginalised and the downtrodden while prodding the legislative to explore broader civil liberties and directing the bureaucracy to implement laws. But recently, the judiciary has fallen into some disrepute. There is a massive backlog of cases and not sufficient human resource to address them. There are also grumblings of corruption, political interference, and a growing nexus between petitioners and the judiciary.
It is this judiciary that new Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court, Ram Kumar Prasad Sah, inherits. On Saturday, Damodar Sharma retired officially and Sah, vetted by the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee on September 30, took over. At his hearing before the Committee, Sah, a four-decade veteran of the judiciary, as new Chief Justice, himself raised issues of growing corruption within the judiciary, the mounting ability of those outside of the legal system to influence decisions, and questions raised about the impartiality of judges. Sah—who is set to retire after around nine months when he reaches 65 years of age—has promised to address these concerns. It is a positive sign in itself that the new CJ has admitted that these problems exist and has professed publicly to resolving them. Still, the challenges before Sah are indeed formidable.
At a time when the Constituent Assembly is currently debating the judicial system to be adopted in federal Nepal, Sah’s conduct and activities will be all the more important. Dissatisfaction with the judiciary has been growing among the public, especially given the courts’ massive delays, often lengthening to years, in resolving cases due to a lack of human resource. This unbalanced ratio of cases to personnel needs to be immediately addressed. But while appointing officials and judges to the courts, Sah must keep in mind the experience, capability, integrity of the personnel above anything else. This will be doubly important for Sah, given the CJ’s role as head of the Judicial Council (JC), which nominates justices to the Supreme Court. The role of the JC, too, has been fraught with controversy over the recent nomination of justices. Though, it must be noted that CJ Sah opposed the nominations by registering a note of dissent. The new CJ must bring the JC back on track and work to make it far-sighted, principled, and transparent; it cannot be beholden to nepotism and political favouritism. This must fall in line with Sah’s broader agenda—to make the judiciary accountable, corruption-free, and a keeper of law of the land.
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