Senior-most Supreme Court (SC) justice Deepak Raj Joshi on Tuesday tendered his resignation.
A source at the SC informed Setopati that Joshi tendered his resignation effective from today itself to President Bidya Devi Bhandari via Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana.
The special committee for parliamentary hearing on August 3, 2018 had rejected Joshi for the post of chief justice. This was the first time in the history of Nepal's parliamentary hearing when any person recommended by the Constitutional Council was rejected by the parliamentary hearing.
CPN had expected Joshi to resign after being rejected by its lawmakers but Joshi stayed on leave since August 5.
He welcomed newly appointed Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra to the Apex Court as the senior most justice when the latter reached the SC to assume office on September 10. He reported for duty the next day but was not given any case. He was assigned cases for the first time since his return on September 13 and was conducting hearings ever since.
The party with almost two-third majority in the parliament had taken return of Joshi as defiance of its power. Joshi was the senior most justice after appointment of Mishra as CJ. The senior most justice serves as a member of the Judicial Council, that recommends justices and investigates complaints against them, and the constitutional bench.
But newly appointed CJ Rana stopped assigning Joshi any bench from January 1 reportedly in return for CPN approving Rana for the post of CJ through the parliamentary hearing.
