The 10-day deadline for filing complaints against the nominees for constitutional bodies, diplomatic missions and justices at the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) ended on Monday with barely 40 plaints registered with the committee.

The low number of complaints was largely due to the mandatory provision for complainants to reveal their identity.

As many as 34 nominees are set to undergo parliamentary hearing before they are formally appointed in their respective posts.

In the past, the PHSC used to receive complaints galore.

The complaints were either submitted in writing or sent through email. They are yet to be opened though. “The number [of complaints] is far less than what we had expected,” said Anita Pariyar, a member of the committee.

Earlier, the PHSC used to call on the general public to file complaints, if there were any, against the nominees, but people were allowed to register plaints without revealing their identity.

Since many complaints in the past did not have names of complainants and they did not provide adequate proof to back their charges, the parliamentary regulations, endorsed three weeks ago, had made it mandatory that the complainants identify themselves.

The PHSC has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to go through the complaints before starting the hearing.

The committee is planning to conduct hearing of one nominee a day and the process is set to start with Chief Justice nominee Sushila Karki and Chief Election Commissioner nominee Ayodhee Prasad Yadav.

The PHSC has to conduct the hearing of Karki, Yadav, 11 justices and 21 ambassadorial nominees. Committee member Pariyar said the list of the nominees will be published on Tuesday for the hearing based on the dates they were nominated for the respective posts. Those who were nominated earlier will be called for hearing early. A two-thirds majority in the committee will be required to approve or reject a nominee.

In the 14-member PHSC, eight members are from the ruling parties and six from the main opposition Nepali Congress.

Complaint against CJ Karki

KATHMANDU: Rajeev Gurung from Chitwan has filed a complaint against Chief Justice nominee Sushila Karki at the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee. In his complaint filed on Monday, Gurung has claimed that Karki had refused to accept a DNA report as evidence while passing a verdict on a case in May 2002. DNA report is generally accepted as proof in various countries across the world including in Nepal. According to DIG Madhav Joshi, DNA report is accepted as proof in courts in Nepal as well.

Correction: The print version of this news has mentioned 15 number of complaints. It has been corrected to 40.