A meeting of the Constitutional Council (CC) on Thursday recommended Gopal Prasad Parajuli as the chief justice.

Parajuli has been serving as acting chief justice since the retirement of Sushila Karki on June 7. Parajuli will be officially appointed as the chief justice by the President after parliamentary hearing.

The Judicial Council had earlier recommended six Supreme Court justices, including Parajuli who is the seniormost justice of the apex court, for the post of chief justice.

But a June 19 meeting of the CC had failed to pick the chief justice after CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli sought some time to “study the names”. 

The other justices recommended for the post of chief justice were Dipak Prasad Joshi, Om Prakash Mishra, Devendra Gopal Shrestha, Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Jagadish Sharma Poudel.  

Earlier controversies had arisen over his date of birth. 

On December 16, then chief justice Karki had maintained Justice Parajuli’s date of birth as August 5, 1952. But a June 13 meeting of the JC had maintained his date of birth as April 28, 1953, which means he will be serving until April 29 next year, as the retirement age for the chief justice is 65 years.

“Today’s CC meeting unanimously decided to recommend Parajuli as the chief justice after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba proposed his name,” said Deputy Speaker Ganga Prasad Yadav, also a member of the CC.