HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Legal experts discuss new civil code
Say nature of crime becoming complex day of day

BY KRISHNA SHARMA

Butwal, Sept. 8: District and Appellate Court judges, legal experts and the district and regional level law enforcing officials had a brainstorming discussion here today on the behavioural aspects of the proposed "Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code".

The follow-up committee of the government, in association with United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP), has been seeking reactions and opinions from the legal personalities, police and bureaucrats on the Code which is going to replace the Civil Code after it becomes law after approval of the Parliament.

In the two-day interaction programme on the proposed draft of "Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code", various delegates voiced that the draft should address all crime-related cases and should not violate any norms of Human Rights. They also pointed out that the draft needed to be changed on various grounds – legal, procedural, humanistic, ethical cultural and linguistic.

"If the draft is presented in the form of a bill without making necessary changes which are recommended, the upcoming law regarding the Criminal Code will not be able to address every type of criminal cases which take place in an organised and planned way," they said.

They raised their concern on issues described in the draft like the new provisions of marriageable age for boys and girls, classification of criminal cases and their punishment and introduction of a new and harsh legal provision for large scale cheating of the banks and co-operatives.

The participants also showed their concern over the legal provision for organised crimes and causes, degrading environmental issues and the crime against the cruelty to animals. They also said that except the words of historical connotations there should be Nepali words used in day-to-day legal practices thereby replacing the unused and impractical Urdu, Hindi and words from other languages.

Speaking on the occasion, advocate Tej Prasad Kandel said that the draft was the photocopy of the 28-year-old Muluki Ain drafted in 2030 B.S.

He blamed the committee for not including the legal provision for the complicated kind of cases which have taken place in the recent times.

The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MLJPA) is expected to present the draft in the form of a bill in the next year's budget session by making some changes as recommended by legal experts working in different parts of the country.

"After the last interaction in Kathmandu, we will start finalising the draft by including all the necessary recommendations received during these kinds of meetings," Secretary at the MLJPA Udapa Nepali Shrestha told The Rising Nepal.

The MLJPA and UNDP are jointly organising the last of this kind of programme in the Capital where high level legal experts including Chief Justice and other judges will be present.

In the concluding ceremony of the programme, Secretary of the Judicial Council Kashi Raj Dahal hailed the participants' valued suggestions and said that the recommendations would be given due respect while giving a final touch to the draft.

Giving the final keynote speech, Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki said that consensus opinions were significant while making laws and any other documents. "However, I should say that we have not yet been able to formulate laws on scientific basis," Karki said addressing the second session of the interaction programme which dealt on "Penal Code".

Today's session was chaired by the judge of Appellate Court-Butwal, Chandra Bahadur Karki while the first session of the interaction programme held the other day was on "Criminal Procedure Code".

Appellate Court judge Karki said that he would provide recommendations to the follow up committee in near future in written form after they had detailed discussions with the district judges, advocates and others.

Other Stories