National
SC full bench to hear Kantipur case today
Hearing on contempt of court case against Kantipur daily is scheduled for Sunday in a five-member full-bench of the Supreme Court.Hearing on contempt of court case against Kantipur daily is scheduled for Sunday in a five-member full-bench of the Supreme Court.
After hearing statements from Kantipur Publications Chairman and Managing Director Kailash Sirohiya, Director Swastika Sirohiya, Kantipur daily Editor-in-Chief Sudheer Sharma and reporter Krishna Gyawali on Tuesday, a division bench of Justices Baman Kumar Shrestha and Dambar Bahadur Shahi had decided to send the case to the full bench.
Kantipur members, in their written statements furnished before the bench, asserted that the Kantipur has respect for the court and the news about Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli published in the daily had not dishonoured the court. National and international journalists’ bodies have condemned CJ Parajuli’s move, calling it a clear case of ‘prior censorship’ and against the principle of natural justice which demands that the chief justice stay away from the case involving himself.
In an interim order on February 25, CJ Parajuli had directed the Press Council Nepal to probe the news reports published by Kantipur daily that questioned inconsistencies in his birth date in official documents.