The government is considering another review petition against the Supreme Court’s verdict on the transitional justice Act in order to implement the agreement reached between two major coalition partners.

One of the five conflict-related points in the nine-point pact signed between the ruling CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) last week proposes law amendments within 15 days in line with “the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Accord”.

The remaining points include giving continuity to the land transactions made during the conflict, pardoning perpetrators of—and withdrawing—conflict-era cases, which conflict victims and rights defenders have strongly objected to saying that the move makes a mockery of the rule of law.

These provisions are also against the apex court verdict. In February last year, a special bench of Justices Kalyan Shrestha, Baidyanath Upadhyaya and Cholendra Shumsher Rana had ruled out amnesty for perpetrators of serious human rights violations. Besides, the SC has struck down almost a dozen provisions of the existing Act, saying that they are inconsistent with the transitional justice norms and practices.

“Without review of this verdict, the pact cannot be implemented,” said Advocate Govinda Bandi. “But there is no precedent to judicial review of a special bench verdict.” The pact was reached to give a new lease of life to the KP Sharma Oli-led government in exchange for case withdrawal and amnesty for leaders of the former rebel party. The previous government had also registered a petition seeking judicial review of the ruling last year, on which a verdict is due. This has put the government in a difficult position.

The law minister and the attorney general are learnt to have been consulting with experts and authorities as to how to go about the issue. They could not be reached for comments immediately despite several attempts while government officials refused to speak on the matter.

According to Bandi, the court can review its verdict if it wants to. But it can have a domino effect on the jurisprudence. “I am not sure if the SC is willing to take the risk,” said Bandi.

The pact has enraged conflict victims and rights defenders, who have already announced protest programmes. “We want the government to amend the Act as per the court verdict,” said Suman Adhikari, chairperson of the Conflict Victims Common Platform. “The government should not complicate the issue by challenging the verdict unnecessarily.”

In December last year, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had forwarded eight amendments to the Act as per the court orders of different times, which include clarity in provisions related to ‘serious crime’, ‘serious human rights violation’ and ‘other crimes of serious nature’.

The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons in February forwarded a draft bill to the government to criminalise disappearance with retrospective effect aiming at conflict-era cases. The government has been sitting on the proposed laws.