SC REDUCED TO SIX JUDGES Kathmandu, 22 Jan.: Following the retirement of Justice Prakash Wasti, the Supreme Court (SC) will have only six permanent justices left from Tuesday, including the chief justice, Gani Ansari writes in Republica.. As per the Interim Constitution, there should be 15 justices on the apex court, including the chief justice. The SC can appoint temporary justices on contract, as per necessity. The four-year term of Wasti, a permanent justice, expired on Monday. The terms of temporary justices Baidyanath Upadhyaya, Tarka Raj Bhatta, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, Bharat Bahadur Karki and Kamal Narayan Das expired last month while anther temporary justice, Bharat Raj Uprety, resigned from his post a week before the expiry of his term. Though the Judicial Council, the constitutional body responsible for recommending the appointment of justices, had recommended to the government at the eleventh hour to continue the tenures of five temporary justices and skip parliamentary hearings, it could not save the judicial posts as the Office of the President shelved the relevent ordinance. The Office of the President in December put on hold the ordinance forwarded by the present caretaker government, citing the need for further study before its approval. Only Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi and Justices Damodar Prasad Sharma, Ram Kumar Prasad Shah, Kalyan Shrestha, Sushila Karki and Girish Chandra Lal remain on the apex court as of Tuesday. The vacancies for SC justices are not likely to get filled any time soon as the Interim Constitution requires new justices to undergo parliamentary hearings for confirmation of their appointments. According to constitutional and legal experts, it will now take more time to decide cases as the apex court will be down to only six justices. There are about 14,000 cases pending at the SC. "This will directly affect the disposal of pending cases," constitutional expert Bhimarjun Acharya told Republica, adding, "Issues of public concern will also be affected." He stated that the present situation came about as the judicial leadership did not take a decision on time. The Special Court is already down to only one justice following the retirement of its chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki and the appointment of the tribunal´s member, Om Prakash Mishra, as chief judge at Rajbiraj Appellate Court some two weeks ago. Nnnn MAOISTS READY FOR MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY SAYS DAHAL Kathmandu, 22 Jan.:: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that his party is ready for any option that would create ground for new elections for Constituent Assembly (CA) by the end of coming May, Sumendra Paudel writes in Republica from Tanahu. . "The Maoist party is ready to be flexible to any extent," Dahal said while addressing a function in Gorkha district on Monday. "We are ready to come up with a more flexible proposal if such a move helps to hold election in May." He urged the opposition parties Nepali Congress and CPN-UML to act responsibly. While addressing a gathering in Gorkha, the home district of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also the party´s vice-chairman, Dahal repeatedly claimed that there was no serious difference between him and Bhattarai. "It is true that there is a dialectic relation between me and Vice-chairman Bhattarai," he said. "And it is also true that the party has gained this height because we have maintained a dialectic relation." Prime Minister Bhattarai and Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, another vice-chairman of the same party, who shared the podium at the function argued that CA elections couldn´t be held as the president blocked ordinances forwarded by the government. Bhattarai and Shrestha both are from Gorkha. "Opposition parties have been holding the government and the Maoist party responsible for not conducting elections," said Bhattarai. "But the elections couldn´t be held because the president didn´t issue the ordinances." The prime minister claimed that holding new CA elections has become a must to institutionalize federalism, secularism and republic system. It may be recalled that the president refused to approve the ordinances saying that they were brought without political consensus. Bhattarai maintained that opposition parties were fearful of fresh elections and lambasted them for seeking power without winning elections. "There is no history in any country of an opposition party being handed the government leadership without holding elections," he added. He vowed to hold elections in May at any cost. Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha said the parties have failed to end the deadlock because of their rigid stances. Nnnn PALPA CUEFEW LIFTED AFTER LOCAL AGEEMENT Kathmandu, 22 Jan.:- The Palpa District Administration Office (DAO) lifted curfew, that was clamped in the Bejhad Bazaar area inRampur, from Monday evening. The local administration lifted the curfew order following a six-point agreement with the protesters, Madhav Aryal writes in The Kathmandu Post from Palpa.. Local people staged demonstrations to protest the suspicious murder of 27-year-old Sonu Shrestha (Khanal) who was found dead on the banks of Kaligandaki river on Saturday. They charged police of not taking any initiatives to find whereabouts of Sonu who was missing for the past one month. They suspected that Sonu's husband Om Bahadur Shrestha could be behind the crime for he often tortured the victim demanding her parental property. The DAO on Sunday imposed curfew order as the demonstrations turned violent. The demonstrators had torched the waiting area and vandalised the office building of the Area Police Office, Rampur, demanding fair investigation into the incident. In the presence of media persons and rights activists, the six-point agreement was reached between the administration and the protesting locals as well as the victim's family. They have agreed to bring the guilty to book immediately, remand the victim's husband Om Bahadur Shrestha in custody for five days for investigation, receive the dead body, recommend the Home Ministry for the medical expenses of the injured in the clash and form a team to probe into the case. A three-member probe team was formed under the chairmanship of Manoj Neupane, superintendent of police at the Pokhara-based Western Regional Police Office. Following the agreement, Sonu's mother in-law Dhak Kumari Shrestha received the body. The body was later cremated on the banks of Kaligandaki river. Nnnn PISTOL, BULLETS RECOVERED FROM INMATE Kathmandu, 22 Jan.:- Police recovered a pistol and three rounds of bullets from a prisoner at the Kaski District Prison on Sunday night. The weapon was recovered when prison leader searched inmate Gobinda Adhikari's bag, Shiva Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post from Kaski.. Acting chief of the prison Bishnu Prasad Subedi said inmate s and security personnel searched Adhikari's bag and found the weapon. Meanwhile, Adhikari and two other inmate s--Tak Bahadur Sunar and Dambar Bahadur Magar--were taken to the District Police Office on Monday to investigate into the matter. On September 23, then prison leader Chandra Gurung and his supporters attacked a group of inmate s led by Kuber Pun, injuring 20 inmate s. A source said Pun supporters Tak Bahadur and Dambar Bahadur might have hidden the weapon. "The weapon might have been brought in during a hearing of the case of Gobinda at the district court. An accident would have happened if the weapon had not been seized," the source added. Gobinda was jailed on the charge of drug trafficking around five months ago. Superintendent of Police Sailesh Thapa said they have taken the incident seriously and police are interrogating inmate s involved in the incident. Meanwhile, a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Shyam Krishna Adhikari was formed on Monday to investigate the matter. The team is asked to submit its report within seven days. nnnn