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| Kathmandu, Wednesday January 22, 2003 Magh 08, 2059. |
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Apex court gears up to hit
back
By Suvecha Pant
KATHMANDU, Jan 21 : An unusual meeting of
Supreme Court justices, chaired by Chief Justice Kedar Nath Upadhyay, has taken serious
note of the continued defiance by the government of the apex court’s orders for
release of five detainees.
The meeting decided to personally ask the Prime
Minister and the Home Minister to respond to the defiance. The polite decision of the
Supreme Court is unprecedented in nature and gravity.
The decision has come in wake of the government’s
perpetual defiance of the court’s orders to release the five detainees, who were
arrested under the Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Punishment and Prevention) Act.
The apex court ordered the government a week ago, to furnish the detainees with 24 hours.
The five detainees who the government has
ignored to release despite repetitive court orders are lodged in the Nakhu Jail. According
to sources, they were brought there yesterday. The parents of Narayan Adhikari, one of the
detainees, met their son in the jail this morning.
"We met our son at the Nakhu Jail this
morning," said Sita Adhikari, the mother.
A source told The Kathmandu Post that the
District Administration Office had given a letter to Adhikari, stating that he was
required to be kept under detention to avert any possible danger to his life. The letter
was signed by the Jail Branch, Lalitpur.
However, the District Police Office at Hanuman
Dhoka had sent a letter yesterday to the Supreme Court stating that Adhikari was not in
their custody. Similarly, such a letter was also sent to the court by the Central Jail
authorities.
Chaturman Gurung, another detainee who was also
claimed to have been released by the government, is kept at the Nakhu Jail.
Tika Ram Bhattarai, an advocate dealing with
these cases said that he would file a case at the Supreme Court on grounds of contempt of
court.
Bhattarai said that it was mandatory for the
government or any authorities to comply with the order issued by the court as per Article
96 of the Constitution.
"The government told the court a lie by
claiming that the five detainees were no more in the government custody," Bhattarai
said. "This is a serious issue and the concerned authorities are subjected to
action."
The accused put under government detention are
Dambar Karki, Haridwar Munwar, Shanti Ram Bhattarai, Narayan Adhikari and Chaturman
Gurung. Neither of them was produced to the Supreme Court today.
Lal Lochan Nepal, another detainee whose release
was issued by the Supreme Court on Monday also has not yet been released. He is also one
of the detainees put at the Nakhu jail.
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