The Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) is set to grill Chief Justice nominee Om Prakash Mishra on Monday. The PHC has three complaints filed against Mishra.

One complaint, filed by Krishna Hari Khadka and Raghunath Khadka over Mishra’s verdict on releasing the public land at Sainbu, Lalitpur, was withdrawn on Thursday.

The PHC, after studying the three complaints, had held a meeting on Friday, in the leadership of Laxman Lal Karna. After the meeting, all the plaintiffs were asked to put forth their issues on Sunday. 

“We have decided to quiz the nominee of Acting Chief Justice Mishra on Monday,” said Amrita Thapa, a member of the PHC. According to the PHC, the first complaint filed against Mishra accuses him of releasing a person who was arrested for leaking the question paper of the exam for the position of lecturer at the Tribhuvan University.

Another complaint, filed by Sabitra Subedi, claims that Mishra’s verdict on former DIG Ranjan Koirala’s case, who has been serving a sentence for murdering his wife, was in favour of a relative. Subedi has also questioned Mishra’s motive in reducing Koirala’s sentence. Another complaint has accused Mishra of giving a clean chit to four convicts, including Dilli Swar, of Kalikot, who has been accused of bleeding the government’s coffers dry by issuing an interim order in support of Ncell and Surya Nepal—so that they could avoid paying tax.

In his complaint, Bhagawati Prasad Lamsal, of Khotang, has claimed that when Mishra was Chief Judge of Kathmandu District Court, he took a bribe of Rs 490,000, given to him by the Foreign Employment Tribunal to reduce their compensation amount which had accumulated to be more than one million.

The Constitutional Council (CC) had recommended Mishra for the top post of the judiciary on August 23. Prior to that, the PHC had rejected the nomination of senior Justice Deepak Joshee as the Chief Justice on August 3.