KESHAB PRASAD UPADHYAY

The trial of the newly appointed chief justice begins. Will he be able to make any improvements?

By KESHAB POUDEL

On Thursday afternoon, just after taking oath of his office, chief justice of the Supreme Court Upadhyay chatted with media-persons at his chamber in the Supreme Court building.

A former journalist, Upadhyay announced his 12-point program to reform the judiciary during his tenure as chief justice. Departing from the earlier tradition, Upadhyaya showed that he means business.

Frank and bold he seemed confident at his first appearance. But the road ahead for the chief justice is not smooth as there are many challenges before him to win the faith of the people in judiciary as a whole.

At a time when there is public disenchantment over leadership in all the three constitutional bodies, will Upadhyay fill the vacuum remains to be seen.

A well known lawman in the country's judiciary, Upadhyay started his legal career as a district judge. Although some of his decisions were widely criticized, Upadhayay has the ability to make improvements in the judiciary and prove that he is different from his predecessors.

Now occupying the top position which every legal professional aspires in his career, it is now his responsibility to prove that he deserves the position and has a definite purpose in life.

Born in Siraha district in a commoner family, Upadhyay started his career as an assistant editor in Gorkhapatra in 2015 B. S. After serving for five years in the field of journalism, Upadhyay quit the profession and joined the judiciary as a district judge.

Upadhyay has seen many ups and downs in judiciary in his long career. When he started his job, the court did not have any buildings like today." There was only one room for all procedures," said Upadhyay, who, like his other colleagues has today separate room for hearing cases.

Rising from the lower strata of society he is the first man to reach to the highest position in the Nepalese judiciary. Most of his predecessors had different background. Upadhyay is the first man who has spent all his life in the bench. "He is a humble man and he has the capacity to excel. It is now up to him to act," said one of his very close friends.

Although his appointment was based on consensus as all the members of the Constitutional Council endorsed his name, the rumor was circulated to confuse the people about the appointment procedure.

Upadhyaya, in fact, is the first chief justice to have contacts from bottom to top in the judiciary. His long experience will definitely prove useful to him.

Accoridng to the Supreme Court, there are a total of 84,000 petitions pending in different levels of courts at present in the country. The Supreme Court alone has to decide 20,000 cases. The Appellate Courts have 18,000 cases and district courts have 46,000 cases pending with them. The cases continue to rise in the county by 7 to 10 percent per annum.

The newly appointed chief justice has a long trial to face. When democracy in Nepal is said to be struggling to survuve, chief justice Upadhyay can play very important role to bring it on the right track.

The Supreme Court : Testing Time for Upadhyay

One of the challenging works for Upadhayay is to protect the rights of the people and legitimize the authority of the government.

Supreme court is supposed to be the custodian of the rights of people. He has already seen about dozens of chief justice retiring from the Supreme Court. But how many of them do people still remember?

Upadhyay has a chance to show that he has determination and courage to bring some changes in the functioning of judiciary.

Can he clear the cases in judiciary as he edited the news during his five-year-tenure as an assistant editor remains to be seen.

As he is committed to introduce reforms in the judiciary, he wants to spend more time on his job and less time in formalities.

For this, he will have to count every minute available to him.

Agenda For Action

Priorities set by the newly appointed chief justice

1. Rsearches and studies will be conducted to find out the reasons behind the delay in the process of finalization of cases. The study will be made to know other practical short comings in the process of final settlement of the cases. The court procedures shall be developed on a calendar system.

2. To pave the way to end the earlier petitions on back log and shifting of responsibilities, a time schedule will be set. For this purpose, the focus will be given to update the old petition system and disputes. The system will be developed to see the cases on the basis of their nature.

3. Due to weakness in the internal court management, the procedures of the court may be slowed. Realizing this, special focusdown will be given to reform these areas. For this reason, the duties, functions and responsibilities of the employees will be clarified. Efforts will be made to judge the performance of the employees. They will be punished or rewarded according to their performances.

4. A system will be developed to see the working capacity, performance, dutifulness, negligence toward work and character of the judges. The role of Judicial council will be made more effective to initiate the system of punishment and reward according to the evaluation of working performance of judges.

5. As there is a lack of international observation and interaction programs for the judges, steps will be taken to start training programs through judicial council secretariat.

6. Regular interaction, debate, meetings will be organized to harmonize relations between the bench and bar.

7. Due to lack of buildings and other physical infrastructure, the working capabilities suffer. The program will be launched to physically well equip the courts. Support from the government is expected for this purpose.

8. By Upholding honor and respect of the court in accordance with the spirit of the constitution, efforts will be made to further increase the faith of the court and problems of the court shall be settled with cooperation from all sides.

9. Initiatives will be taken to deliver prompt justice. To this purpose, the judicial administration act and act related to court management will be reviewed.

10. The decisions and recommendation given by full meeting of the Supreme Court and judges conference' will be implemented gradually.

11. Action will be taken to scientifically place about 6 million files of settled petitions.

12. A system will be developed to register complaints of people who have suffered from injustice. Similarly, a system will be developed to register complaints against those judges who do not fulfil their responsibility.