LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

BY KRISHNA SHARMA

Butwal, Sept. 7: Keeping in mind the urgent need of amending the decades old Muluki Ain (Civil Code), the government has prepared a draft entitled ‘The Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code’ and is presently discussing with legal experts and law enforces on the pros and cons of the proposed draft.

As part of the government’s recent directives to seek reactions and opinions from the legal personalities, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MLJPA) organised an interaction programme here today to seek suggestions and recommendations from the legal experts and officials responsible for maintaining law and order situation and executing the existing laws of the country in their respective areas.

The on-going two-day interaction programme, which is being participated in by government attorneys or judges in district courts and Appellate Courts, police officers, CDOs and personalities from law executing bodies are discussing the shortcomings of the existing laws.

Delivering his inaugural speech, chief guest of the function, Attorney General, Badri Bahadur Karki said, that the reason behind introducing the new Criminal Code was to ‘replace’ the decades old Muluki Ain and follow the norms and values of the Constitution promulgated after the restoration of democracy in 1990.

"At a time when the nature of crimes has become complicated and criminals have been very much trained in committing crimes with the help of modern scientific technologies in the modern times, our existing laws have proved to be old and traditional ones. So, to address every kind of criminal activities and maintain a peaceful society there was an essense of introducing the new Criminal Code," Karki said.

Secretary at the Judicial Council Kashi Raj Dahal said that the main objective of bringing the new Panel and Criminal Code was to make the criminal judiciary more trustworthy, convincing, transparent and modern.

"Our existing laws are traditional and many of them are outdated. However, the new criminal code has tried to be more scientific and is expected to be more effective when it comes into reality in controlling criminal activities," Dahal said.

Rupandehi district attorney Jagadish Sharma said that the draft on Penal and Criminal Code was expected to address the newly emerging problems related to crimes since that was prepared after a thorough study of the country’s existing laws and the laws of other countries as well.

Meanwhile, other legal experts, law enforcing officials and bureaucrats like CDO Tana Sharma, President of Appellate Court Butwal’s Bar Section Hari Prasad Pandey and SSP Deepak Singh Thangen said that the laws only were not enough in curbing criminal activities.

"Resources, training opportunities for law enforcing officials and sense of responsibility among the officials are also important factors if law and situation orders are to be made stable," they voiced.

Speaking on the occasion, UNDP official Shantam Singh Khadka said that the UN Development Agency has shown its interest in maintaining country’s law and order situation keeping in mind its impact in development activities in Nepal.

Delivering a vote of thanks on behalf of the organisers’ group, Khadka said that UNDP has joined hands with the government for strengthening the rule of law since the beginning of 2001.

"We are helping the government in making Nepalese laws more relevant with the international laws to which Nepal is a signatory, strengthening the working ability of the Law Ministry and Supreme Court, provide training opportunities to the members of arbitration board and finally, establish some pilot courts so as to finalise the petty and other cases as early as possible," Khadka said highlighting the five major objectives of the UNDP.

After the committee concludes its final interaction programme in Kathmandu, which commences from Aswin 13, it will prepare its final copy by including genuine suggestions and explanatory notes on every articles of the draft and present to the government.

"We are going to present the final draft as "Bill" in the coming budget session," said Secretary at the MLJPA Udaya Nepali Shrestha told The Rising Nepal adding that the bill on Penal and Criminal Procedure Code would be the first one to be presented in the Parliament which will in both the Nepal and English languages.

Meanwhile, according to convener of the follow-up committee, Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki, two sub-committees have been set up by the committee to prepare groundwork in order to present the bill through the parliament and include clause-wise justification and reasons for the provisions in cooperated in the PenalA Code and Criminal Procedure Code.

"The clause-wise justification and reasons will enable people to understand what provisions are made for what purpose," Attorney General Karki explained to The Rising Nepal shortly after the inaugural session of the programme.

Similarly another sub-committee is mandated to prepare a list of all scattered laws which would be repealed on account of the enactment of the Penal Code which is in the offing.

The 238-page long draft report was prepared only last month by the 7-member task force headed by Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki. After the submission of the report to the Prime Minister’s office only on August 8, the government then again formed a five-member Penal and Criminal Procedure Code Execution and Follow-up Committee under the convenorship of Attorney General Karki for collecting recommendations and including the best of them in the final draft. Other members of the committee included Secretary at the MLJPA Udaya Nepali Shrestha, Secretary of the Judicial Council Kashi Raj Dahal Joint Government Attorney Narendra Prasad Pathak and chief of the Judicial Training Center Madhav Poudel.

The major recommendations

* The major recommendations of ‘The Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code’ include.Formation of special team of legal experts to investigate in cases of bigger crimes.

* Establishment of an autonomous crime study center.

* Timely amendment of Penal policy.

* Provision of long arm jurisdiction.

* Extension of the life sentence from 20 to 22 years.

* Withdrawal of light government cases.

* Harsh legal: Provision for kidnapping the hostage taking.

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