Judges most corrupt in Nepal: report

Nepal's judges are among the most corrupt in the country, forcing people to seek justice from Maoist guerrillas, says a report compiled by a senior lawyer.

The Global Corruption Report 2007, drafted by lawyer Krishna Prasad Bhandari for Transparency International, says that the justice system in Nepal has failed due to corruption, politicisation and the culture of impunity.

"Although corruption affects every sector of governance, corruption in judiciary poses an immediate threat to ordinary people because it directly affects their lives, poverty and liberty," the report released in Kathmandu Thursday said.

"It is a major hindrance in securing rule of law."

According to the report, the mounting corruption in Nepal's courts forced poor citizens to take their disputes to the "people's courts" run by the Maoists from underground, which promised speedy justice.

The report recommends that the government form a high-level independent panel that can investigate judges facing allegations of corruption, and arrest them and seize their property if found guilty.

Both Nepal's ruling parties and King Gyanendra have been held responsible for the mounting instability and corruption in the kingdom that nurtured corruption and impunity.

The dissolution of parliament by former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the formation of a controversial commission by King Gyanendra after he seized absolute power in 2005 with the help of the army have been especially held as factors that encouraged corruption.

For 15 years in the past, when the country was ruled by the same parties that are in the government now, parliament did not impeach any Supreme Court justice, the report points out.

Though two apex court judges were forced to step down after intense media reports about their involvement in corruption, the Judicial Council did not initiate any investigation but allowed them to retire quietly, it said.

King Gyanendra's 15-month regime that ended after a public uprising last year had a tremendous negative impact on the judiciary. Royalists were appointed as judges and the then attorney general Pawan Kumar Ojha, who colluded in irregularities by the royal regime, was promoted as a Supreme Court judge.

"Political considerations, inconsistency in interpreting the constitution and laws, conservative attitude in the handling of public interest litigation and delayed delivery of decisions promote corruption," the report stated.

It comes in the wake of a massive scandal after a litigant made public a taped conversation between him and a court official who assured him his case would be heard by a sympathetic judge if he paid the bribe demanded.

(IANS)

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