NATIONAL8 (Spotlight Weekly]

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

A woman's saga tells how pathetic the situation of Nepalese judiciary is

By KESHAB POUDEL

When an elderly woman walks into the Supreme Court premises with the help of a stick, many people inside notice her. But few people know about the long ordeal of the woman. This 83-year-old woman with bending body has been knocking the doors of justice for the last 33 years.

Safala : Wating for justice

For senior justices, judges and lawyers, Safala Shrestha, a resident of Thamel is not an unfamiliar name. Safala roams different courtsrooms in her quest for a share of the family's property. She has been challenged by her stepsons, who are using the flaws of the law on every front. The struggle has been arduous. Yet she has not lost hope.

"I believe that I will eventually get my share," said Safala, who married a widower in 1963. Her elderly husband treated her perfectly but her three steps sons who denied to divide the family property. Wearing old clothes, the woman, whose claim amounts to Rs10 million, is living in a small room of old house. She has spent all the money she had on fighting this case.

Safala is not the only person facing such a long court battle for dividing family property. Of the more than 35,000 civil cases pending in the court, half are related to the division of property.

"We are still following the court procedures adopted by Rana Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana in 1853 with some modification in 1963 by King Mahendra," said Prakash Wasti, advocate and coordinator of Kanoon bi-monthly legal magazine which disclosed the case in its recent issue.

"We need an initiative to change the entire way of dealing with cases related to family property division."

Realizing the need for amendment, the government has already tabled a bill in parliament. Despite such gravity of the problem, the members of parliament are yet to act.

In many cases, petitioners have to wait years to get the respondent. According to court management of Civil Code Act, respondent can easily delay the proceedings. "Normally it takes four-five years to settle a family property case," said advocate Bal Krishna Neupane.

Because of court proceedings and technicalities, it is very difficult to get justice in time in the case related to the partition of property. "There need to amend the court processing," said Harihar Dahal, president of Nepal Bar Association.

It may be unbelievable for many but the long saga of Safala represents the real situation of Nepalese judicial system which is slow in delivering justice.

The story of 83-year-old Safala started in 2024 B.S. when she filed a cased in Kathmandu District Court seeking the partition of property. She won the court battle after few years but she is yet to possess her property. Lapses in the execution of the decision, the respondents are able to delay the procedure.

All three level court including the Supreme Court upheld her right over the family property and asked her steps son to distribute it according to the last, Safala has to go for different cases one after another.

The authority of execution is so poor that it took nearly six months just to paste the summon of the court in the residence of the respondent.

As everyone is talking about the need to take initiative for the reform in the judicial process to quickly deliver the justice, the cases of Safala shows that Nepal's legal procedure is yet to understand the human voice.