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Golden Years Of NBA
By KUMAR REGMI,
This year, Nepal Bar Association (NBA) is celebrating its glorious Golden Jubilee. On 2013/9/7 B.S., the seed of NBA was planted by 10 (ten) legal practitioners with one line resolution that says “today’s meeting unanimously decides to establish Bar Association”. Those legendary individuals were Senior Advocate Devnath Prasad Varma, Advocate Yogendra Prakash Malla, Advocate Padam Raj Bista, Advocate Purna Lal Shrestha (Jhochhe), Pleader Heramba Prasad Upadhyaya, Pleader Indra Bahadur Pandey, Pleader Purna Lal Shrestha (Taud), Pleader Ganga Prasad Timalsina, Pleader Narayan Prasad Shrestha and Pleader Maya Nath Upadhyaya. On January 11 th 1957 , nine-member First Executive Committee was formed and Senior Advocate Devnath Prasad Varma was appointed its President. Today, none of them are with us. But their memory will remain forever. We pay our homage with deep sense of respect to all these pioneering fathers of NBA whose idea and vision have grown into a strong organization of more than 25,000 lawyers organized under 81 Bar Units all over the Country and dedicated to the quality legal service. Apart from that, the NBA’s unflagging commitment for the cause of rule of law, democracy, independence of judiciary, and the supremacy of Constitution even in times of autocracy and darkness has elevated its position as a trusted and towering civil society organization in the country.
The life and quality of a Bar directly depends on the life and quality of the Court. Since Nepal was totally closed from the outside world till 1951 revolution as it remained under the rule of autocratic and dictatorial regimes, the concept of independence of judiciary and right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner was an alien idea. In such environment, it is mentioned by many, that the credit for initiating legal practice in the Nepalese Courts goes to the distinguished Chief Justice Hari Prasad Pradhan, who brought his rich and cultured lawyer’s background from India and introduced that in our Supreme Court in 1952. He was brought to Nepal by B.P. Koirala to introduce and strengthen the newly established Judiciary under the infant democracy. When we did not even have a separate law for lawyers, Chief Justice Pradhan liberally interpreted section 16 of Court Procedure Chapter of Old Muluki Ain (Country Code). Under that section a party to the case was allowed to bring an individual, knowledgeable of his/her case, at witness deposition and discussion of the case. Chief Justice Pradhan started taking application from such individual and asked and encouraged to plead on behalf of his party. He taught how to argue and present the case before the Bench. Apart from drafting, it opened entirely a new avenue for retired court officials and law graduates and they began gathering at the Court premises. Slowly, Law Firms started to open and organized method of legal services got underway. Hence, it would not be exaggeration to call Chief Justice Pradhan the first Guru of Nepalese Lawyers and indirect but strong contributor for the establishment of the NBA. Under his active initiative, then government agreed to formulate the first law for lawyers, which was drafted by Shambhu Prasad Gyawali (later he joined in legal practice and became Senior Advocate and President of NBA in 1982) in the Supreme Court Regulation, 1956. That was further advanced and legal profession was made more professionalized under the Law Practitioners Act 1969. Today, we have Nepal Bar Council, established by the Nepal Bar Council Act 1993 as an independent statutory body devoted to promoting, protecting and regulating the activities of the law practitioners.
It is interesting to note that even though the NBA was established in 1956, it did not have its Constitution and was not registered till 1962. Around March 1962, a meeting of 20 lawyers at Hiti Darbar under the initiative of Pramod Samsar J.B.R. decided to select Forth Executive Committee and appoint recently retired civil servant Krisna Prasad Ghimire (who later become Senior Advocate) the President of NBA and Madhu Prasad Sharma (who later become Senior Advocate) the Secretary. Besides that, the meeting entrusted theses two individuals, along with Krisna Prasad Bhandari (father figure of the Bar and Senior Advocate), responsibility to draft the Constitution of NBA and register it with government. It is said that because of President Ghimire’s individual friendship with then Zonal Administrator, the NBA was finally registered in 1962 under the Rastriya Nirdeshanalaya Ain (National Direction Act) 1961.
Even though, NBA was established in 1956 and legalized in 1962, it did not have its own building and separate premises till Norwegian Bar Association decided to support the NBA from 1987. The support became possible with international exposure and leadership of distinguished Senior Advocate Kusum Shrestha. His personal rapport and friendship with Alfa Sckugli of Norwegian Bar made it possible to receive substantial fund. The construction of NBA building started in 1993 when Radheshyam Adhikari (Senior Advocate) was the President and Advocate Prakash Osti was the Secretary. In this endeavor, Advocate Osti’s tireless work has been lauded by many contemporary lawyers. His contribution to Nepalese legal literature and research also cannot be forgotten. Today, NBA has five-story building with a good amount of resources at its disposal.
The history of NBA is full of events and to discuss them all even briefly would not be possible in this short article. To protect its dignity, independence, and in search for liberty and freedom, the NBA has never hesitated to take toughest decision even in the days of autocratic panchayat regime. When then Chief Justice Bhagawati Prasad Singh showed rough and unacceptable behavior against the President of NBA Krisna Prasad Ghimire, the NBA decided to ask all lawyers to boycott the Bench of the Supreme Court from August 23, 1964. This was the first boycott called by the NBA, which was called off on August 27, 1964 when on that day then Registrar of the Supreme Court went to the Executive Committee meeting of the NBA and the matter was resolved. To protect its independence and democratic stance, the NBA has not hesitated to remove its President, Yachchha Harsha Bajracharaya, with no confidence vote, for supporting the first amendment to the Panchayat Constitution in 1966 by terming it “highly democratic”. This unacceptable act of supporting undemocratic system and its Constitution created hue and cry and Mukunda Regmi, Senior Advocate, even resigned from the post of Secretary of NBA in protest.
The beginning of three-days National Conference of NBA every three years started from May 7-9, 1977 and has added a new dimension to the bar history. The Conference has become the largest forum for NBA members to sit together, discuss and plan for future actions as well as raise their collective voice on various national problems and give concrete opinions. In one of the Conferences, when Senior Advocate Laxman Prasad Aryal was the President and Subash Newang was the Secretary of the NBA, it became the first organization, which institutionally demanded the end of one party panchayat regime and restoration of multi party democracy. It was a historical unanimous decision declared at the end of its Forth National Conference held in Kathmandu from September 23 to 25, 1988. To achieve that goal, the members of the NBA actively participated in 1990 people’s movement for democracy with number of demonstrations and arrests, which replaced the undemocratic panchayat system in which sovereignty of Nepal was vested with the King, with the multiparty system in which sovereignty of Nepal was vested with Nepalese people guaranteed by the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1990. To support the movement, the NBA decided to boycott all the Courts of Nepal on February 20, 1990.
Similarly, it is known to all that the NBA has been fighting for the clean, independent, competent, and impartial judiciary. The relation between the Bar and the Bench needs to be cordial and focused towards justice. However, when the Courts, specially the Supreme Court, tend to ignore the cry of the people for justice and against the suppression of fundamental rights of the people by the government, the NBA has raised protest flags against the Court and reminded the Judges their constitutional responsibilities. By following the foot steps of predecessors, the NBA has raised its loudest protesting voice against the undemocratic and unconstitutional move of the present King of Nepal since October 4, 2002 and demanded the restoration of constitutional order. The NBA has been in forefront to protect the rule of law, sovereignty of the people and their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and international human rights laws. The present leadership of NBA under the President Sambhu Thapa and Secretary Madhav Basnet has proven not only to the Nepalese people but to the world that lawyers of Nepal will not be cowed down and will fight every battle for democracy, rule of law, independence of judiciary, and supremacy of the Constitution without any compromise. The entire Executive Committee of NBA has made us proud.
(Regmi, LL.M ( Toronto ) and LL.M (Pune) is an advocate)
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