The Judicial Council (JC) has, after a long discussion and deliberation, recommended 31 persons to be appointed judges at the Appellate Courts (AC) and sent the names to the Royal Palace for approval, a newspaper report said.

The council recommended persons to fill up the vacant posts at the AC from among the persons already serving under the judicial sector. The Kantipur daily quoted a source with the Supreme Court as saying that the names, unknown to judicial sector, proposed by law and justice minister Niranjan Thapa were thrown away this time.

“Other JC members spent hours to convince the minister why many names put forward by him were not appropriate to be recommended as judges at the appellate level,” the source said, “Finally, the minister sided with other members and names were deleted from the list.”

The council this time recommended 30 district judges for promotion. Shambhu Bahadur Khadka, serving as secretary to the Royal Commission for Corruption Control has also been recommended.

The apex court source also disclosed that exercises were on to transfer working AC judges along with the naming of new judges.

Many district judges with very short period in service have also been recommended. Half a dozen district judges including Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Mira Khadka, got their names included on the basis of their competence in administering justice.

The JC held a meeting on Monday and Tuesday to select and recommend names for vacant positions of judges at AC. Minister Thapa, an ex-officio member of the council, had tried to exert pressure over other members of the body to elect and recommend names proposed by him for the posts. He produced names of 15 lawyers close to him seeking the council’s approval.