Unit 4: Nepalese Judicial System — Formation, Jurisdiction and Functioning of Courts and Tribunals (Supreme Court; Constitutional Bench; High Court; District Court; Tribunals; Quasi-Judicial Bodies); Role of Precedents; Contempt of Court; Challenges of Nepalese Judiciary
1. The Court Pyramid (Article 127: the three-tier design)
- Supreme Court (Articles 128–138): the apex — court of record; the final power to interpret the Constitution and law (Article 128(2)); the bench’s size (the CJ + up to 20 justices — Article 129(1)); the jurisdiction: the writ powers (Article 133(2)-(3): habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto); the any-citizen voidness petition (Article 133(1)); the appellate-and-review lines (Article 133(4)-(5)); the administration-and-supervision (Article 128(3)); the appointments (the CJ by the Constitutional Council’s route; the justices by the Judicial Council’s — Article 129(2)); the tenure-and-removal (six years-CJ; 65; the impeachment-of-Article 101 — Constitutional Law-II’s Unit 6 full anatomy, this semester);
- Constitutional Bench (Article 137): the CJ + four; the exclusive docket (the voidness petitions; the jurisdiction-and-election disputes; the serious constitutional questions) — the constitutional-court-within-the-court;
- High Court (Articles 139–147): one per province; the Chief Judge-and-judges (appointed by the CJ on the Judicial Council’s recommendation); the jurisdiction: the provincial writ powers (Article 144: the same five writs within the province), the appeals from the districts, the original cases per law; the bench’s-and-circuit design (the circuit benches’ access function);
- District Court (Articles 148–151): one per district; the original jurisdiction’s base (the civil-and-criminal first instance; the habeas corpus petitions at the first rung — Article 151); the local-level judicial institutions beneath it (Article 127(2): the ADR-and-local bodies’ subordination);
- Tribunals (Article 152): the specialized courts by law (the Special Court’s corruption-and-organized-crime jurisdiction; the revenue tribunal; the administrative tribunal; the military courts’ separate line) — the no-case-specific-court bar; the >1-year-imprisonment rule (the judicial monopoly over serious liberty);
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