After nationwide violence, Nepal Supreme Court resumes work in temporary tents

International News: Temporary tents were set up in the Supreme Court premises on Sunday morning after last week's violent protests and arson in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu. This was the first working day after the army relaxed the curfew. 'Supreme Court Nepal' was written on the white tent, under which employees of various courts were giving new dates for their cases to the litigants who had come.

Burnt vehicles and two-wheelers were lying near the Supreme Court building. This is the same place where the protesters had vandalized and set fire during the violent protests last week. During this, the entire Supreme Court premises as well as most of the government offices in Kathmandu suffered heavy damage. These protests also brought down the government of  KP Sharma Oli.

36 thousand old & 26 thousand ongoing case files burnt

According to senior advocate and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Purnaman Shakya, at least 26,000 ongoing case files and about 36,000 old records in the Supreme Court premises were completely burnt in the fire. Newly appointed interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki expressed concern over the loss of judicial files and damage to the Supreme Court building in a public address on Sunday. She said that all the records have been burnt and now everything will have to start from scratch again.

Judges' chambers also burnt

After the court opened on Sunday, lawyers and staff were not allowed to enter the main building, as its structure had weakened and there was a danger of collapse. The courtroom, registrar's office and chambers of all judges, including the Chief Justice have been completely burnt. Senior advocate Kedar Prasad Koirala, who is also the general secretary of the Nepal Bar Association, said that the courts have not yet started functioning fully. He said, "We have decided that urgent cases, especially habeas corpus (illegal detention) cases, will be heard in a secure annex building. This is a temporary arrangement, but after the violence, the number of such cases will be high, so it is important to settle them soon."

148 litigants registered their presence

By around 2 pm, 148 litigants had reached the court and registered their presence. They were given new dates and the further process was explained. Purnaman Shakya said that further strategy has been decided in the bar and bench meetings in the last two days. He said, "All the cases coming to the Supreme Court have already been decided in the lower courts. Lawyers have a copy of the case. We have appealed to all the lawyers to give photocopies of the case documents to the court so that new records can be made."

Under the temporary tent, the court staff will start registering illegal detention and other complaints. Shakya said, "The number of cases will be very high, but the work of the court cannot stop. So as people are coming, we are finishing their work here in the tent."

Violence erupted on September 9

On September 9, most of the students, who call themselves Gen-Z, took to the streets. They vandalized government offices across the city and burnt files, computers and documents wherever they reached. The Supreme Court premises also became a victim of arson. This place is near Kathmandu's famous Singha Durbar, where the offices of the Prime Minister and other ministers are located.

An official of the Registrar's Office said, "The mob first targeted the Registrar's Office located on the ground floor. Then they went to the upper floors and collected files and computers and kept them in one place and set them on fire. Even the Chief Justice's chamber was burnt. Today we had to buy a new register to record the names of the litigants, because all the old records have been burnt."