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मन्तव्य

प्रस्तुत पुस्तक केही महत्वपूर्ण संवैधानिक फैसलाहरुको अध्ययन सर्वोच्च अदालतबाट हालैका वर्षहरुमा गरिएका आठवटा संवैधानिक फैसला एवम् ती फैसलहरुमा प्रतिपादित सिद्धान्तहरुको समीक्षा हो ।

यसमा संविधानसभाको म्याद थप सम्बन्धमा परेको रिट निवेदनमा सर्वोच्च अदालतबाट भएका विभिन्न निर्णयहरुको संक्षिप्त पुनरावलोकनदेखि लिएर प्राकृतिक स्रोतमा नेपाल सरकारको हैसियत सर्वेसर्वा नभई केवल ट्रष्टिसम्मको मात्र हुने र यस अर्थमा सरकारले वातावरणमा प्रतिकूल प्रभाव पार्नेगरी कसैलाई कुनै कार्य गर्न दिन नहुने भन्नेसम्मको ठहरको चिरफार गरिएको छ । यी फैसलाहरुलाई विभिन्न कानुनविद्हरुबाट विश्लेषण गरिएको छ । सोमध्ये केही कानुन व्यवसायी हुनुहुन्छ भने केही कानुन शिक्षणसँग सम्बन्धित विज्ञहरु हुनुहुन्छ ।

यस पुस्तकलाई सर्सर्ती हेर्ने जोसुकैले पनि यहाँ सम्मिलित सबै फैसलाहरुको अलग–अलग दृष्टिकोणबाट अध्ययन गरिएको देख्न सक्दछ । वस्तुतः कानुन पेशामा संलग्न व्यवसायीहरुले विवादग्रस्त कानुनी र संवैधानिक विषयहरुमा गर्ने व्याख्या एवम् सोका लागि लिइने सैद्धान्तिक आधारहरु बीच मत–मतान्तर देखिनु सामान्य नै हो । तर अन्ततः सर्वोच्च अदालतले गरिदिएको व्याख्या एवम् प्रतिपादन गरेको सिद्धान्तले नै अन्तिम अख्तियारी पाउँदछ । यस्ता व्याख्याहरुमा जबसम्म संविधान वा कानुन संशोधनको माध्यमबाट वैध रुपमा परिवर्तन गरिँदैनन्, वा सर्वोच्च अदालतले नै उपयुक्त समयमा पुनर्विचार वा पुनव्र्याख्या गर्दैन, तबसम्म त्यस्ता सिद्धान्तहरु कायमै रहन्छन् । तिनलाई समालोचना गरेर फैसलाको स्तर वृद्धि वा सैद्धान्तिक रुपमा त्यसलाई परिष्कृत गर्ने प्रयास प्राज्ञिक क्षेत्रको उत्तरदायित्व हो । समीक्षात्मक अध्ययन एवम् अनुसन्धानको माध्यमबाट त्यस्ता प्रयासहरुलाई सहयोग गरिने दृष्टान्तहरु सबै कमन ल प्रणाली भएका मुलुकहरुमा पाइन्छ । हाम्रै देशमा पनि यदाकदा यसतर्फ प्रयास नभएका होइनन् । त्यस्तो अध्ययन एवम् अनुसन्धानले सर्वोच्च अदालतसहित सम्बद्ध सबै पक्षलाई उचित परिस्थितिमा उचित प्रक्रिया बमोजिम आफूले स्थापित गरेको सिद्धान्तहरुलाई पुनर्लेखन वा परिमार्जन गर्ने अवसर प्रदान गर्दछ । त्यसैले यस प्रकारको अध्ययन एवम् तिनको प्रकाशनले निरन्तरता पाउनु जरुरी छ ।

यस पृष्ठभूमिमा यो पुस्तकका सम्पादकद्वय डा. विपिन अधिकारी तथा सहप्राध्यापक गणेशदत्त भट्टलाई केही महत्वपूर्ण संवैधानिक फैसलाहरुको अध्ययन प्रकाशन गर्न लाग्नुभएकोमा धन्यवाद दिन चाहन्छु । नेपाल कन्स्टिट्युसन फाउण्डेसनबाट भविष्यमा पनि यस प्रकारका प्रयासहरुले निरन्तरता पाउन् भन्ने मेरो शुभेच्छा छ ।

डा. सूर्य ढुंगेल
वि.सं. २०६९ साउन १५ 

Foreword by Manohar Prasad Bhattarai

Nepal is likely to complete its nearly four-year long constitution drafting process by 27 May 2012. The Constituent Assembly will have to engage deeply in a variety of issues to meet this deadline established by Article 64 of the Interim Constitution. As in any transitional country, the challenges of participatory constitution drafting are enormous. Since 28 May 2008, when the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place, the country has been discussing democracy, social justice, federalism, devolution of power, and the rights of minorities and indigenous people. In the course of these conversations, Nepal has studied the experiences of other countries, taking advantage of the considerable knowledge on comparative experiences in constitution building. This has enabled nuanced debates on issues which do not appear complicated at first glance.   

The constitution drafting process in any nation must consist of inclusive and participatory deliberations resulting in agreements establishing the fundamental law of the land. Identifying the fundamental values and institutional preferences of the people is a crucial task. Equally important, however, are negotiations between different parties, sectors and interests in the national context. In this sense, the political process in Nepal is no longer an elite exercise. As frequently highlighted by Subash C. Nemwang, chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, the final agreement on the constitutional arrangement must be satisfactory to all the stakeholders within the country. Indeed, the Constituent Assembly has already fulfilled many of its duties, reaching settlements on a plethora of issues. At this final stage, the active and serious engagement of the political leadership is required to complete the process.

This work by Bipin Adhikari is a brief study of the functioning of the Constituent Assembly as well as the nature of the remaining tasks of constitution building. Beginning with the opening of the Constituent Assembly on 28 May 2008, these pages review the activities of the constituent body over the past 46 months. Outlining the preliminary groundwork, this retrospective covers the efforts to collect public opinion and recommendations, the deliberations and reports of the thematic committees, emerging constitutional issues, and crucial areas of dispute awaiting settlements. There are discussions of the three central disputed issues: form of government, federalism, and the electoral system. In this context, Adhikari highlights the work of the Dispute Resolution Sub-Committee under the Constitutional Committee of the CA and the recent reports of the State Restructuring Commission.

Commenting on the disagreements in drafting the constitution, Adhikari is of the view that lack of vision as well as of credible leadership has hampered the process. Nonetheless, there are ideological differences between different political parties on several constitutional issues. For instance, there is disagreement on core issues of constitutional supremacy, government accountability, and the rule of law. At every stage of the process, the ideological position of the ruling party has comprehensively impacted the Assembly. In this sense, the delays are more a result of the beleaguered peace process than of technical\legal constitutional issues. This is an important point to remember as the new constitution is being drafted in the context of the peace process. The 21 November 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord concluded between the Government of Nepal and the CPN (Maoist) and the 8 December 2006 Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies form part of the Interim Constitution. If the chance of institutionalized peace is bleak, Adhikari believes that some of the major parties would lose the motivation to draft the new democratic constitution. He also maintains that the contents of the draft constitution will be carefully reviewed by Nepal’s powerful neighbours.

It will be evident to readers that Adhikari does not dwell on the political aspects of the major controversies at the Constituent Assembly. The challenges of handling the demands of the 2006 People’s Movement, the preceding insurgency, the emergence of identity politics, the cultural and national foundations of the state, and discussions on social transformation are not addressed here. Similarly, Adhikari does not talk about managing the transition in the post-constitution scenario, an issue he has discussed in depth elsewhere. These omissions are deliberate as this work is generally aimed at recapping what has been achieved and what remains. Indeed, there is a dire need for a work of this kind which can function as reference material for legal experts, law makers, scholars and the general public. I believe that this publication helps fill the existing vacuum.

Bipin Adhikari needs no introduction to readers interested in Nepal’s constitutional development, parliamentary process and the legal system. A senior constitutional expert, he has extensively written and spoken on issues of constitutional concern. As a constitutional expert working very closely with lawmakers in the Constituent Assembly, he is deeply aware of the discussions and considerations influencing decisions since May 2008. I am confident that this publication will be of much use to the public, especially professionals, civil society members and the international community working in Nepal. It will also positively impact the ongoing constitution building process.

Manohar Prasad Bhattarai
Secretary General
The Constituent Assembly of Nepal
27 March 2012 

Preface – Werner Thut, Vice President, Forum of Federations, Ottawa, July 2011

Excerpt: The study titled Transition to Federalism in Nepal: Lessons from Comparative Processes in Spain, South Africa and Ethiopia was produced by the Forum of Federations as part of its Nepal program… The program’s activities included a two-day conference … … held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on October 27-28, 2010… Through a comparative approach the Forum hopes to contribute to a debate about how a vision of a federal Nepal can be turned into reality. 

NEPAL: NHRC launches book on ‘human rights challenges’ facing Nepal

The National Human Rights Commission released a book on Wednesday that deals with the human rights problem in Nepal and discusses the possible resolutions

Nepal News, Wednesday, January 21, 2004

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday launched a publication titled “Conflict, Human Rights & Peace: Challenges Before Nepal”, a press release stated.

Edited by Dr Bipin Adhikari, the book includes a compilation of articles and papers presented in a lecture series organized by the National Human Rights Commission in the year 2003.

The Chairperson of the Commission, Rt. Hon. Nayan Bahadur Khatri formally launched the book, which is dedicated to the human rights leader, late Rishikesh Shaha.

Of the 13 scholarly papers dealing with the present situation of conflict between the Government and the Maoists from a human rights perspective, prominent contributors to the book include the Assistant Secretary General to the United Nations Kul Chandra Gautam, famous international peacemaker and scholar Johan Galtung and Henning Karcher, the former Resident Representative of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Nepal.

The book is dedicated towards enhancing the human rights understanding for the conflict management and resolution.

NHRC chairperson, Rt. Hon. Nayan Bahadur Khatri in his foreword to the book has stated: “The ongoing conflict has resulted in massive human rights violations throughout the country. Unless the conflict is tackled and violence is brought to a halt, the human rights of the people will continue to be in jeopardy.”

He further states, “In fact, there have never been societies without conflict. There is nothing strange about it. Conflict is a process of change. The real problem starts when we ignore legitimate solutions to the conflict that could benefit the society in the long run.”

Other contributors to the book include NHRC Commissioner Sushil Pyakurel, Acting Secretary Kedar Prasad Poudyal and other eminent scholars and professionals such as Anand Aditya, D.B. Gurung, Dhruba Kumar, Asbjorn Eide, Karen Kenny, Patrick Twomey, Niraj Dawadi, Laksiri Fernando and Bipin Adhikari.

The book also analyzes the international experiences of conflicts in Guatemala and Sri Lanka and draws pertinent lessons from these experiences amid the ongoing conflict in Nepal.

Acting Secretary of the Commission Kedar Prasad Poudyal welcomed the participants in the ceremony while NHRC Commissioner Hon. Sushil Pyakurel replied to the various questions raised by the journalists and media persons.