A meeting of the Constitutional Council (CC) summoned to pick a candidate for the post of Chief Justice (CJ) ended inconclusively on Monday due to serious differences between the ruling and opposition parties. 

According to Chief Secretary Somlal Subedi, who is ex-officio member secretary of CC, today's meeting held minor discussions on the names recommended by the Judicial Council for the CJ post. 

The next meeting of the CC has been summoned for June 29 after CPN-UML Chairman Oli sought more time for study. 

At today’s meeting convened at Singha Durbar, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba proposed nominating Gopal Prasad Parajuli as the candidate for the CJ post. 

It has been learnt that CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli objected to the name of Gopal Parajuli for the post. 

Article 238 of the Constitution of Nepal has a provision of Constitutional Council to recommend names for appointing Chief Justice, and heads of constitutional bodies. According to the provision, Prime Minister will be ex-officio chairman of the council, House speaker, chairman of national assembly, opposition party leader and deputy speaker of House will be the members of the CC.

The post of CJ has been lying vacant following the retirement of former Chief Justice Sushil Karki on June 7.

Currently, senior-moist Justice Gopal Parajuli is heading the Supreme Court (SC) as Acting Chief Justice.

Earlier on June 13, the Judicial Council (JC) had recommended the names of six Supreme Court Justices for the post of Chief Justice.

Gopal Parajuli, Deepak Raj Joshi, Om Prakash Mishra, Devendra Gopal Shrestha, Choldendra Shamshar JBR and Jagadish Sharma Paudel have been recommended for the top post of SC.