Nepal's first woman Chief Justice Sushila Karki faces impeachment motion for 'prejudice'

Kathmandu: An impeachment motion against Nepal’s first woman Chief Justice Sushila Karki was registered in the Parliament on Sunday by two major ruling parties, accusing her of “interfering” in the jurisdiction of the executive and issuing “prejudiced” verdicts. Karki, 64, who has done her Masters in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University, was automatically suspended from the post after the registration of the motion. [caption id=“attachment_2770138” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Image courtesy - CNN News18[/caption] Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Min Bishwokarma and CPN (Maoist Centre) chief whip Tek Bahadur Basnet, among other lawmakers, registered the motion in the Parliament secretariat this afternoon. A total of 249 lawmakers from the ruling NC and CPN (Maoist Centre) have signed the motion which has accused Karki of “interfering in the jurisdiction of executive and failing to issue verdicts without being prejudiced”. According to the constitutional provision, an amendment motion can be filed in the parliament secretariat by securing the support of at least one-fourth of the total number of lawmakers. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Development Kamal Thapa expressed his displeasure over the impeachment motion. In a twitter post, chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Thapa said the impeachment motion registered by NC and Maoist lawmakers was objectionable and unfortunate. Attorney General Raman Shrestha said it was necessary to impeach the CJ for her tampering with the work performance evaluation of the Inspector General of Police candidates during a recent controversy over the promotion of Nepal Police Chief. Karki had assumed office as Nepal’s first woman Chief Justice on 1 August last year.