. International human rights organizations have warned the government of Nepal not to interfere in the Supreme Court appointments and court structure. <\/p>\n
They have called it a matter of serious concern for the independence of the judiciary. <\/p>\n
In a joint statement issued on Friday, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) expressed serious concern that the recent steps taken by the Government of Nepal threaten to undermine the independence of the country’s judiciary.<\/p>\n
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“In particular, there have been credible reports that there have been attempts to change the composition of the court by forcing sitting judges of the Supreme Court to resign or through pressure for impeachment,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Also, in May 2026, the government amended the Constitutional Council Act through an executive ordinance without passing a law from the parliament, which is not an appropriate procedure in accordance with Nepal’s constitution and the principles of rule of law. “<\/p>\n
International organizations have also expressed concern over the amendments to the Constitutional Council Act. The amendment bill has changed the quorum of the Constitutional Council recommending the appointment of office-bearers of various constitutional bodies, including the Chief Justice, and the provision of necessary votes in the decision-making process. <\/p>\n
“The independence of the judiciary is a cornerstone of the rule of law and an essential safeguard mechanism for human rights protection,” said Ian Snyderman, senior legal and policy director at the ICJ.<\/p>\n
Any reform of Nepal’s judicial system should strengthen, not undermine the independence, impartiality and credibility of the courts. Manoj Kumar Sharma was recently appointed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His appointment is in contrast to Nepal’s long-standing practice of appointing the senior-most serving Supreme Court justice as the Chief Justice, even though three justices are still in office. However, the Parliamentary Hearing Committee has already approved his appointment.<\/p>\n
Complaints against the appointment were filed and there was no meaningful public discussion or examination of those complaints. <\/p>\n
According to the information they have received, senior justices of the Supreme Court Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi and Hari Phuyal have been pressured to resign and threatened with impeachment if they do not comply.<\/p>\n
They have also stated that they are not aware of any public allegation that meets the constitutional grounds required for impeachment under the Constitution of Nepal. <\/p>\n
According to the Constitution of Nepal, after an impeachment motion is filed against a judge, the concerned judge will remain suspended until the parliament gives a final decision.<\/p>\n
If three senior judges of the Supreme Court are suspended, the organization has said that the structure and functioning of the Supreme Court could be seriously affected while important constitutional cases filed against the government’s decisions and actions of the executive are being heard. <\/p>\n
Using or threatening impeachment against judges without clear constitutional grounds could be seen as an abuse of constitutional process with the intention of influencing the composition of the court and the outcome of the pending case. <\/p>\n
In the past, there have been attempts to initiate impeachment proceedings against judges in the context of weakening judicial independence and rule of law. Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Public trust in the judiciary depends not only on the competence and integrity of judges, but also on the transparency, impartiality, and independence of judicial appointments.”<\/p>\n
Appointments or removals that appear to be based on political influence undermine trust in the administration of justice and undermine the rule of law. “<\/p>\n
According to international standards, judges should be free from undue influence, pressure, intimidation or interference. The process of removing them from office should be on an objective basis and protected from political influence. <\/p>\n
The organizations have acknowledged that judicial reform is necessary to improve the administration of justice in Nepal, saying that such reforms should further strengthen the independence, transparency, accountability and rule of law of the judiciary. <\/p>\n
The international organizations have also made some suggestions to the new government led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, which was formed in late March after the dissolution of parliament in September last year.<\/p>\n
They urged the government to respect and protect the independence and integrity of the judiciary, not to pressure judges to resign, and not to proceed with the impeachment process without a clear constitutional basis and due process. <\/p>\n
They have also demanded that appointments to judicial posts including the Chief Justice be made through a transparent, objective and merit-based process that effectively protects the independence of the judiciary. The organisations have also urged the government to review the amendments to the Constitutional Council Act through an open parliamentary process and ensure that the legal framework for judicial appointments adequately protects the judiciary from political control or undue influence.<\/p>\n
They said that all future reforms related to the judiciary should be focused towards strengthening the independence, transparency, accountability and public trust in the administration of justice in accordance with the Constitution of Nepal, the rule of law and international human rights standards. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
. International human rights organizations have warned the government of Nepal not to interfere in the Supreme Court appointments and court structure. They have called it a matter of serious concern for the independence of the judiciary. In a joint statement issued on Friday, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission ofContinue reading “Nepal warns against political interference in Supreme Court”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":79321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sarbochha-adalat_2c92978f.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79326,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79325\/revisions\/79326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/79321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}