Kathmandu, 25 August (H.S.):

Of the 1,594 positions vacated across various public bodies in Nepal following the enactment of a special ordinance on the removal of public office-holders after the formation of the Balendra Shah government, only around 200 posts have been filled so far.

After Balendra Shah’s government came to power in March this year, the government removed 1,594 office-bearers from various boards, committees and institutions in April. Since then, the functioning of several government bodies has been affected. The operations of several commissions have come to a complete standstill, while institutions have been forced to function without budgets, policies and programmes because the posts of registrars remain vacant.

Several appointments have also not been made in accordance with the procedures prescribed under the Constitution and other prevailing laws. An ordinance was introduced to abolish political appointments on the grounds of freeing public bodies from partisan interference. However, the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party has been accused of attempting to appoint its own supporters to the vacant positions.

The courts have also annulled several government appointments, citing violations of prescribed procedures and selection methods. As recently as last week, the Supreme Court cancelled the appointment of Maheshwar Bhakta Shrestha as executive chairman of Nepal Airlines Corporation. The court observed that the appointment of an overage candidate was prima facie liable to be rejected.

This is not the first instance in which an appointment made by the Balendra Shah-led government has been overturned by the court. Earlier, the Supreme Court had also annulled the appointment of Dr Deepak Prasad Bastola as a member of the Board of Directors of Nepal Airlines Corporation.

In June, the court rejected the decision to appoint Dr Bastola to the corporation’s board, citing a lack of compliance with the prescribed eligibility criteria and appointment procedure. The Minister for Culture and Tourism had appointed five people, including Bastola, to the board. Upendra Bahadur Karki, who had been ranked first on the selection committee’s merit list for recommendation, filed a writ petition challenging the government’s decision to appoint someone else.

The court observed that the minister had exercised an arbitrary “pick and choose” approach without providing any substantive basis for bypassing the merit-based recommendation.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar