The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday quashed a February 12 government decision of appointing DIG Jaya Bahadur Chand as the inspector general, paving the way for DIG Nawaraj Silwal to become the chief of Nepal Police.

Directing the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to take into account merit and seniority, as mentioned in Nepal Police Regulations, while promoting police officers, the apex court observed that “based on the ranking as stated in Nepal Police Regulations 1992, Nawaraj Silwal has the highest point followed by Prakash Aryal, Bam Bahadur Bhandari and Chand”.

“While the Cabinet took the decision on February 12, this evaluation was completely overlooked. This cannot be considered appropriate,” observed a full bench of Chief Justice Sushila Karki and Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Anil Kumar Sinha as the court closed the more than one-month-long case.

“The February 12 government decision was wrong and against the law,” the bench said in its order.

The apex court has argued that there is no ground to appoint Chand as the chief of the Nepal Police as the evidences furnished before the court show that “he was handpicked”.

Terming the government decision of promoting a fourth person [Chand] in seniority order by sidelining who is on the top [Silwal] of the list “capricious”, the bench said: “Education qualification and trainings of Silwal show that he is more competent than Chand.”

In an oblique reference to Chand’s lawyers, who skipped the hearing on Monday, the apex court said it “was a surprising act” on their part.

Chand’s lawyers had boycotted the scheduled hearing on the case after the apex court decided to move ahead despite reservations from Attorney General Raman Kumar Shrestha.

On February 12, the government had decided to promote DIG Chand to the post of IG, ignoring the seniority of DIG Silwal and DIG Prakash Aryal.

DIG Silwal the same day moved the SC challenging Chand’s appointment as Nepal Police chief. Later that day, the SC clubbed Silwal’s writ with yet another petition filed by advocate Kapil Dev Dhakal and stayed the government decision.

According to Nepal Police Regulations, promotion of officials to the post of IG should be based on seniority, work efficiency and work

performance along with accountability and ability to lead and encourage those under him/her.

The court has stated that bypassing what is clearly mentioned in the Nepal Police Regulations will set a negative precedent. As a result the management and human resources of the agency could face dire consequences, said the court.