The Nepali Judiciary - Supreme Court Of Nepal

yearly arrears is satisfactory, the court has not been able to dispose the cases within the
prescribed period. In other words the courts have failed to dispose cases within one year which is
very unsatisfactory. From the Supreme Court to the District Courts, cases have not been disposed
within the prescribed period. Many judiciaries of the world have the practice of disposing cases
within three or six months from the date of registration, whereas we have not been able to achieve
that target of one (maximum two years) year and this is a serious challenge for the Nepali judiciary.
The judiciary is not solely responsible for this. Lack of sufficient reform in the laws, lack of sufficient
assistance from stakeholders in relation to case management and lack of sufficient logistical
support are some of the external factors that are equally responsible.
In order to make the justice dispensing process efficient and speedy, the judiciary has to take
some important steps immediately otherwise the justice dispensing process may not be efficient
and speedy. A High-Level Committee constituted for development of case management upon
identifying the core problems regarding case management has recommended and suggested for
improvement and reform in case management and has also suggested for applying different
procedures pursuant to the nature of the case. It is believed that expected results would be
achieved provided these suggestions and recommendations are to be implemented. Till date, the
judiciary has failed to arrange judge controlled case flow management. Time table for disposal of
cases and its subsequent implementation has not been done. Likewise, work performance
standard has not been determined. Panel system has not been implemented for hearing of cases.
Effective mechanism for disposal of old cases has not been implemented and neither has the
judiciary succeeded in implementing management of case hearing. Likewise, the judiciary has not
been able to control postponement of hearing of cases. Other than this, the judiciary should with
utmost priority undertake the following: make efforts to reform the due date (tarik) system,
effectively and strictly implement the provision of preliminary hearing, effective application of
information technology regarding case management, reform in record system and effective
monitoring and inspection.
Without looking into the actual maturity of the case, it has been a practice of accepting all the case
registered during the previous fiscal year as arrears for the coming year and as such this practice
does not reflect the actual status of arrears of cases and therefore this system should be reviewed
and redefined. A prescribed process need to be followed while deciding a case and without
fulfilling those processes a case cannot be disposed and therefore while projecting a target a
minimum period required for disposing the case should also be taken into consideration.
Therefore, on this basis, when a case is registered, the stages of proceedings of the case and the
probable period of disposal of case should be determined and parties to the case should be
informed about it. For improvement in the management the following improvement is deemed
necessary: improvement in management of information and data, bench management, time
management, management of logistics and reform in library system.
It is also an important aspect for the judiciary to maintain good relation with the stakeholders. No
matter what kind of reforms the judiciary makes within its institution or no matter what kind of
reform plans the judiciary brings, the success of such reforms depends upon the full assistance
and cooperation from its stakeholders. Cooperation is required from the Judicial Council with
regards to appointment, transfer and evaluation of competency of judges. Likewise, cooperation is
required from lawyers and government attorneys in relation to case management and from the
government for procurement of logistics and similarly assistance is required from the concerned
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