Nepal’s Judicial Council appoints judges to high courts while leaving Supreme Court vacancies unfilled
In Nepal, the Judicial Council has begun filling vacancies in the high courts while leaving four positions unfilled at the Supreme Court, where about 29,000 cases are pending. This was reported by The Kathmandu Post.
At a meeting chaired by Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma, the council appointed Bhadrakali Pokharel, Himlal Belbase and Gajendra Bahadur Singh as high court judges in Surkhet, Janakpur and Biratnagar, respectively. Belbase is due to retire on age grounds in four days, while Pokharel was appointed a judge on the eve of his retirement from the post of Supreme Court registrar.
Supreme Court administrative official Bharat Kumar Dahal was also appointed a district court judge and assigned to the Kailali District Court. The council transferred several other judges to high and district courts.
Supreme Court workload
On Tuesday, 489 cases were listed for hearing at the Supreme Court. Decisions were made in 230 of them, while 259 were postponed for various reasons, including the impossibility or impracticality of hearing them. Constitutionally, the court must consist of 21 judges including the chief justice, but only 17 are currently serving. Justice Binod Sharma is due to retire on age grounds next month, which will further reduce the court’s composition.
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Kedar Koirala, general secretary of the Nepal Bar Association, criticized the sequence of appointments. According to him, the council resolved an administrative matter rather than the judiciary’s most urgent problem, since the shortage of Supreme Court judges directly affects parties to court proceedings.
Further personnel decisions
Manoj Kumar Sharma said that the appointment process had already begun and vacancies at all levels of the judiciary would soon be filled. At the same time, a member of the Judicial Council told the publication that appointments of Supreme Court judges and chief judges of high courts were unlikely to take place before October 1.
Full appointments to the Supreme Court have not been made for several years. In June 2025, the Judicial Council recommended Meghraj Pokharel for the post of Supreme Court justice, but one vacancy remained unfilled at that time. Subsequently, Justices Kumar Chudal and Prakash Man Singh Raut retired in October 2025 and April 2026, respectively. The Judicial Council Act of 2016 provides for recommending candidates at least one month before a judge’s planned age-based retirement.
After the meeting, the Judicial Service Commission also recommended Baburam Dahal and Thagindra Kattel for the posts of Supreme Court registrars, and Rama Prasad Bhattarai for the post of Judicial Council secretary. These appointments will take effect after government approval.
