In a rare incident in parliamentary practice, the business of a House committee was deferred on Sunday after officials at the Parliament-Secretariat refused to work beyond their office time.

Officials from the parliament service are on protest demanding at least 50 percent allowance for their extra work.

The Parliamentary Hearing Committee was quizzing chief justice nominee Cholendra Shumsher Rana. After sensing that the officials were leaving in the midst of the meeting, committee Chairman Laxman Lal Karna deferred it till Tuesday.

Though Karna wanted to continue the hearing on Monday, Nepali Congress lawmakers demanded the deferral saying that they were marking the Reconciliation Day on the day.

The government scrapped at the beginning of the current fiscal year the 80 percent allowance that the officials had been receiving for the past few years. Since mid-July, they haven’t received any allowance apart from their regular salary. Scrapping the allowance was a part of the government’s austerity measure.

Officials from the parliamentary service said in a statement two weeks ago that they would not work beyond the office hours (10am to 5pm during summer and 10am to 4pm in winter) starting on December 16.

“Leaving the hearing was our compulsion. We had to opt for the extreme measure since the government ignored our demands for months,” Sabitra Sharma, an officer on the hearing committee, told the Post. Even lawmakers knew that they would quit the meeting after 4pm, she added. Lawmakers close to the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) say they will find a solution to the problem.

“I believe this situation won’t last long. A solution will be sought very soon,” Suman Pyakurel, a member of the hearing committee, told the Post. On the first day of hearing, lawmakers posed wide-ranging questions before Rana, most of them related to his controversial rulings in different capacities at the appellate, Special and apex courts.

Shiva Kumar Mandal, a member of the committee, questioned what had inspired Rana to rule the card game called “marriage” not as gambling but as an intellectual exercise.

This ruling as a judge in the erstwhile Biratnagar Appellate Court is one of the most controversial decisions by Rana. Mandal also asked Rana to clarify how he justified his clean chit to former minister JP Gupta, which was overruled by a bench led by Sushila Karki, a Supreme Court justice.

The hearing committee had received nine complaints against the CJ nominee, claiming that he was unfit to lead the judiciary. Other lawmakers also sought answers over his ruling to allow casinos to operate without clearing their dues.

Rana’s order to allow an individual to acquire a public pond in Birgunj too was presented for his clarification. A couple of lawmakers including NCP leader Surendra Pandey have yet to ask their questions. Rana will respond to their queries on Tuesday before the hearing committee decides whether or not to endorse his nomination.

Rana presented a 15-point document explaining how he would work if appointed the chief justice. Rana’s two-decade long judicial career is full of controversies. The House committee has the authority to reject a nominee, as it did in case of Deepak Raj Joshi a few months ago, if it isn’t convinced by their answers.

 If Rana clears the hearing, he will be the first chief justice to serve a full four-year term after Bishwo Nath Upadhyaya in 1995.