SC fiat to address Dalits' concern-Ananta Raj Luitel

KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court today directed the government to constitute a special committee to find in what context the words chhota and bada are used in the preamble of the Country’s Code (Muluki Ain).

A three-member full bench of Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha, Justices Prem Sharma and Bharat Raj Upreti issued the directive in response to a two-year-old public interest litigation.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly and the National Dalit Commission were given a year to come at a conclusion after conducting a substantial study.

The preamble states that promulgation of the code was required to provide justice to all chhota and bada equally, as the holy books “were not sufficient to do so.”

Dalit advocate Ratna Bahadur Bagchand, who is now appellate court judge, had stated in the PIL that use of words chhota and bada in the preamble code violated the spirit of the interim constitution that has abolished caste based discrimination. He claimed that such words were nothing but a stigma on the lower caste people.

“Historic importance of the promulgation of the code may be lost by removing these words. A substantial study should be done to find in what context these words were used. Only after that the court will decide whether to remove these words or not from the code,” the bench observed.

Stating that removing the words based on an assumption will be inappropriate, the bench also directed the authorities to find what should be done if the words were removed from the Muluki Ain.

It directed the authorities to include a historian, a sociologist, a culture expert, a legal expert and an expert on caste-based system in Nepal in the special committee.

The bench directed that the study should unearth whether the words were used to address the the historic caste based system or were used in some other context.

source:- thehimalayantimes(2010-06-10)