The full bench of Nepal’s Supreme Court has annulled the government’s decision to appoint DIG Jaya Bahadur Chand as the country’s police chief, and indirectly appointed Nawaraj Silwal as IGP.
The case was referred to the full bench by Justices Iswari Prasad Khatiwada and Tejbahadur KC on Friday.
The court had ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs, Public Service Commission and Police HQ to submit papers related to the performance appraisal of the pool of DIGs from which an IG was to be picked.
The court today, however, has not specifically mentioned that any particular individual be appointed to the post.
The government decided to appoint DIG Jaya Bahadur Chand as the new police chief on February 12, just three days after a Cabinet meeting was put off following a dispute in the ruling coalition.
Chand was to succeed IGP Upendrakanta Aryal, who has already retired. While Prime Minister Prachanda was in favour of the senior-most DIG Navaraj Silwal, Nepali Congress chief wanted Chand, the third senior-most officer in the ranks to be appointed to the post.
The court has ruled that the officer with the best appraisal shall get the post and annulled Chand’s appointment. This means the court has ruled in favour of Silwal.
Silwal had moved the Supreme Court the same day Chand was appointed to the post, and the court had issued a stay on Chand’s appointment within a few hours.
According to sources, Deuba had instructed Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi to tender his resignation if the Prime Minister did not yield to his demand. The Prime Minister had reportedly suggested that the second senior-most Prakash Aryal could be a compromise candidate for the job. Deuba, however, was adamant that Chand, who hails from Far-west Nepal (the NC chief’s constituency) be named Aryal’s successor.
