BODIES TO MOTHER, TWO CHILDREN FOUND IN MORANG Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: Bodies of a mother and her two children were recovered by police from Tadi, Morang, Thursday. Police are whether Mata Rai, 25, and her children committed suicide or were murdered. The children were aged three and one year. Nnnn BHAIRAHAWA, NEPAL APF MEET IN SEMI-FINAL OF T20 NATIONAL CRICKET MATCH FRIDAY Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: Region-IV (Bhairahawa) Thursday defeated Region-I (Biratnagar) by 82 runs to reach the semi-finals of the Twenty20 National Cricket Tournament.. Nepal APF Club defeated Region-III (Kathmandu) by 61 runs to to top Group ‘A’ and will play ’Group B runners-up Region-VIII (Pokhara) in Friday’s semi-finals. Bhairahawa plays Group ‘B’ winners Baitadi Friday as well. the same day. nnnn WITH MANPOWER SHORTAGE, JUDICIAL CONCIL MULLS NEW WAYS TO DISPENCE JUSTICE Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: After failing to appoint judges in the Supreme Court, the Judicial Council is now seeking alternative ways to ease dispensation of justice. As the apex court is struggling with lack of judges, JC is in bid to empower appeal and district courts so that they can exercise writ jurisdictionm Ananta Raj Luitel writes in The Himalayan Times,. “We have been considering ways to create an environment under which people can move appellate and district courts for adjudication under various writ jurisdictions so that the crisis facing the judiciary can be addressed,” Khem Narayan Dhungana, member, JC told The Himalayan Times. According to him, there is a need of strict management of case and time and fixing a ceiling of lawyers during the hearing, which may help address the current crisis because the chief justice along with six apex court justices are not sufficient to tackle the huge workload in the apex court. There are at least 14,000 cases pending in the apex court, out of which some 3,000 writ petitions were filed under the extra-ordinary jurisdiction as more than 1,000 writ petitions are registered every year at the apex court. The same jurisdiction — habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari, prohibition and quo warranto — are being exercised by the appeal and district courts. However, the lawyers do tend to move the apex court itself, instead of reaching out to lower courts, because they consider moving the apex court is ‘more convincing and credible’. “Lawyers also tend to file cases at the Supreme Court to charge higher fees from the clients. Besides, moving the apex court helps them earn publicity,” said Dhungana. “As a matter of fact, these same cases can also be filed at appellate and district courts to seek legal remedy,” Dhungana clarified. But whatever the JC is mulling now is just a preliminary idea. Shreekanta Paudel, Spokesperson, SC, said the consent from the lawyers is a must before the JC decides to implement the plan. “The apex court cannot formally ask anyone to go to lower courts if the person wants to move the SC. However, we can seek support from the Nepal Bar Association because implementing some alternative ways for dispensation of justice will ultimately help all those seeking justice,” added Paudel. According to him, any kind of dictation would be against the constitution because every person has the right to move the Supreme Court if there is no alternative remedy or if the person thinks other ways are not sufficient for him to get justice. Senior Advocate Shreehari Aryal opposed the idea mooted by the JC. “This will not be practical in all cases. Extra-ordinary jurisdiction is limited to the apex court in real terms,” said Aryal. He argued that appeal courts and district courts have similar jurisdiction, but handling cases from these courts in mofussil is not practical. Chief judges’ appointment discussed A meeting of the Judicial Council on Thursday discussed the candidates for the post of chief judges for appellate courts. Six positions of chief judges are vacant in 16 appellate courts across the country. “We have been discussing the criteria and the process to short-list the contenders,” Khem Narayan Dhungana, member, JC, told reporters after the meeting. “We may appoint the chief judges after the next meeting scheduled for Monday,” Dhungana added. The meeting also entrusted Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi to hold discussions with Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who also holds the law portfolio, on the possible names of possible chief judges and the process for hiring them. CJ Regmi, senior-most Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma and members Dhungana and Upendra Keshari Neupane were present at the meeting. Nnnn MUTUAL FUNDS BEING RECOGNIZED AS INVESTMENT INSTRUMENT KATHMANDU: As the Nepali capital market is getting ready to receive more mutual funds, the central bank has recognised mutual funds as an investment instrument for financial institutions. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had recently issued a directive saying that financial institutions that buy mutual fund units have to consider it a risky asset while calculating capital adequacy against risk, for mutual funds being a relatively risky investment instrument. “This has clarified that financial institutions are allowed by the regulator to invest in mutual funds,” said CEO of Nabil Investment Banking Pravin Raman Parajuli. Nabil Investment is preparing to launch a mutual fund scheme soon. “Any financial institution that was apprehensive about mutual funds due to lack of clarity now have an understanding regarding the risk assessment of the units in their portfolio,” he added. There was no such provision in the regulations earlier, but now, NRB has recognised mutual fund investment as stock investment. As mutual funds primarily invest in shares, it is considered somewhat risky. However, some schemes invest entirely in gilt-edged securities such as government bonds that are relatively risk free. “Hopefully, NRB will revise the provision for mutual fund schemes that invest in gilt-edged securities,” pointed out Parajuli. Nabil Investment has already applied for the approval of the upcoming mutual fund scheme for the regulator’s approval. Likewise, NRB has also allowed mutual fund sponsoring banks that invest their seed capital in the mutual fund schemes to calculate the invested amount as their primary capital. Siddhartha Mutual Fund had launched its new fund offer of Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme I in November-end. Siddhartha Capital — the fund manager of the mutual fund — has also completed the allotment of the units. Of the total scheme worth more than Rs 400 million, institutional investors such as banks and financial institutions and insurance companies subscribed 68 per cent, while the rest was for the public. “We will apply next week for the listing at the stock exchange and hopefully the scheme will be listed within one month,” pointed out COO of Siddhartha Capital Mekh Thapa. The scheme will also publish its Net Asset Value before listing which will be calculated by an independent auditor. nnnn