By TON Research Desk

Even after six months, three ruling parties listed a motion to impeach the Chief Justice the impeachment proposal stays to be in a state of dividing line in Parliament. UML and ruling coalition lawmakers say time is too short for probing and putting the motion to vote. With the House term nearing an end, parties are trying to rush the impeachment of the suspended Chief Justice.

On Thursday, just as the government declared polls for November 20 to elect a new Parliament, some ruling party leaders said the House of Representatives will now deliberate the motion. As many as 98 lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), and the CPN (Unified Socialist) on February 13 had listed the impeachment motion against the chief justice, leading to his ultimate suspension.

The impeachment motion will move onward from the next meeting of the lower house or the following meeting according to the Nepali Congress whip. The impeachment motion is the business of the current House. It needs to be debated and confirmed without additional delay.

An impeachment recommendation committee was made on March 6 after the motion was listed but it has yet to deliberate the matter. The newly elected deputy Speaker said that since the impeachment motion is the business of the incumbent House, it needs to be discussed and confirmed by the same House.

The motion will be first discussed in the House before it is sent to the impeachment recommendation committee. But whether the impeachment motion can be finalized by the House remains a concern. Parties have tentatively agreed on keeping the House alive until a day before nominations for the November 20 elections are filed.

On Thursday, Chief Election Commissioner said that candidacy registration will begin closely after Dashain (near mid-October). This will mean the House will have a little over two months to debate the impeachment motion to investigate the 29 allegations altogether against the suspended chief justice and submit its report to the House which then has to vote on the suspension.

As per Rule 161 (2) of the Regulation of the House of Representatives, the Speaker can present the motion for deliberations in the House seven days from the date of its registration. Had the process moved smoothly, the motion could have been tabled in the House on February 20. However, neither the Speaker nor the ruling parties showed interest to forward it. Rule 163 of the regulation allows a maximum of three months for the recommendation committee to investigate the charges.

The Parliament would have already voted on the motion by now, following all due procedure, if the ruling parties and the Speaker really wanted the chairperson of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum to say that the ruling parties have misused the constitutional provision of impeachment by deferring action on the motion.

Article 101 (2) of the constitution says one-fourth of the members of Parliament can register an impeachment motion against any official holding a constitutional position on the ground of failing to perform duty effectively or working against the constitution or extremely violating their code of conduct.

The 11-member recommendation committee includes members from the CPN-UML, the Nepali Congress, the Maoist Centre, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, and the CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Janata Samajbadi Party.

As the motion was registered with the sole purpose of suspending the chief justice of Nepal. The ruling parties have proved this by deferring in tabling the motion in the House. However, a motion can still be put to vote within the remaining time of the House. However, it does not appears that the ruling parties really want that.

As all lawmakers look in the election mood from now onwards, the recommendation committee is unlikely to carry out its task smoothly in a short time. They should have forwarded the motion before announcing the election date. Unless there is UML support, the motion, however, is set to fail. To impeach the suspended chief justice the motion needs to be endorsed by a two-thirds majority (181 votes) of the current 271-strong House.

The ruling coalition has 153 votes. Similarly, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party with 13 lawmakers had extended its support to Prime Minister during the vote of confidence. The coalition will have 164 votes if Loktantrik Samajbadi stands in favor of the motion. However, 17 more votes will be required for the endorsement of the motion.

The main opposition has 98 lawmakers in the House. Even ruling party lawmakers agree that there is a time constraint in probing the charges against the chief justice and putting the motion to vote. As the House will function until before Dashain (the third week of October). However, if there is consensus among all the parties to complete the probe and put the motion to vote before the House ends.