A month after its formation, the Impeachment Recommendation Committee of Parliament on Thursday endorsed its working procedure with a provision of allowing the committee to search the office and residence of the accused.

The committee had failed to finalise the working procedure as its members from the Nepali Congress and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal stood against the authority to search.

After several rounds of discussions, lawmakers from both the parties agreed to the provision. This allows the committee to search the personal residence and office of Lokman Singh Karki, the suspended chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

A subcommittee of the IRC led by CPN (Maoist Centre) lawmaker Ram Narayan Bidari two weeks ago submitted the working procedure. It was caught in a dispute after the two parties stood against the provision for search. “We agreed to it considering that the parliamentary regulation permits the search,” said Dilnath Giri, an IRC member from the RPP-Nepal.

Learning from the problem faced by the Supreme Court in delivering a notice to Karki, the IRC reached the decision to issue a public notice against the accused if s/he declines to receive the summons.

The impeachment motion will be forwarded to the IRC after theoretical discussion in the Legislature-Parliament. Karki will be summoned for clarification on the charges within seven days of the committee starting work.

According to Rewati Raman Bhandari, a member of the committee from the CPN-UML, any individual who has evidence against the accused can file a complaint at the IRC. Over a month since the Maoist and UML lawmakers registered the impeachment motion against Karki, Parliament is yet to conclude discussion on the matter.

The IRC will have 30 days to study the allegations against Karki. Bhandari said the committee will study the impeachment procedure proposed by Haricharan Shah of Nepali Janata Dal, Rukmini Chaudhari of Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch (Tharuhat), and Ram Kumar Rai of Khambuwan Rastriya Morcha, Nepal against apex court justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai until Karki’s case is forwarded to it.