Kathmandu, September 10
Chaos engulfed the Supreme Court premises on Tuesday afternoon after a group of demonstrators stormed the compound and set fire to vital court documents and records, leaving the judiciary crippled.
The hearings in various benches were nearing completion when the mob entered the court premises. At first, they broke into branches where case files and documents were stored, gathered them in piles, and set them ablaze, eyewitness staff reported. Soon, more groups joined in, torching documents from multiple sections.
The flames spread to the main façade of the Supreme Court building, damaging the three-story structure and destroying the symbolic Shriyantra placed atop the iconic window, which staff worshipped daily before commencing court proceedings.
After setting fires on the lower floors, the protesters rushed directly to the third floor, home to the court’s highly sensitive data center that housed digital records of all proceedings. “The third floor is our most critical section. Protesters directly targeted the data center before spreading the fire elsewhere,” a deputy secretary at the court said.
Outnumbered security personnel failed to contain the large group. Another team of demonstrators then attacked the annex building, torching the archives that contained old case files and verdicts. “Now we have nothing left, only ashes,” the official lamented.
The court had maintained a backup of its data at a center in Hetauda, but that too was vandalized and set on fire. With both sites destroyed, the Supreme Court’s website has gone offline, halting the digital processing of cases.
In recent years, the judiciary had moved to digitize case files, but older cases still required paper records. With those archives destroyed, crucial evidence and records have vanished, leaving judges uncertain on how to proceed with pending cases. Thousands of rulings stored digitally were also lost as computers and servers burned. The Special Court, considered a model of digital transformation, was not spared either.
The attackers re-entered the compound later, setting fire to the Supreme Bar Association and the Bar library. They also targeted the court’s printing press and the legal journals’ storage room. A newly established Judicial Museum, which contained artifacts painstakingly collected by judges and staff over the years, was reduced to ashes.
The Office of the Attorney General also faced similar attacks, with protesters gathering files in piles before setting them on fire. The same pattern was reported at the District Court, the District Government Attorney’s Office, and the Special Government Attorney’s Office in Maitighar Mandala. Dozens of vehicles parked within the Supreme Court compound were also torched.
“This has collapsed the judiciary’s entire archive,” a Supreme Court justice said. “We decide cases based on documents and evidence. Now, nothing remains. It’s not just months or years of work lost, decades of effort have been turned to ash.”
With both data centers destroyed, the entire judicial process across the country has come to a standstill. Another justice said the bench will attempt a collective discussion on Wednesday morning to find a symbolic way to resume court operations.
“Even during the earthquake, we kept the courts running. Now everything has been burned to the ground, but we will still try to reopen symbolically,” the justice said. “This is a collective loss, and we must make a collective effort to restart, however small.”
