Lawyers have said that the decision by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to examine the verdict of the Supreme Court is unconstitutional and illegal.

In response to the PAC decision to examine the apex court’s verdict on Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills, vice president of Nepal Bar Association (NBA) Sher Bahadur KC said that the parliament has no authority to examine judiciary’s verdict.

“The Constitution of 1990 still exists and it is mentioned in this constitution that the parliament cannot examine or debate on the verdict by the apex court,” KC said, adding, “This provision is there in order to guarantee the independence of judiciary.”

The PAC, on Wednesday, decided to investigate the verdict by SC bench on withdrawing Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills – which was owned by Choudhary Group – from the bank defaulter blacklist. The PAC members have claimed that the verdict, which hindered in recovery of huge amount of loans, was wrong and full of irregularity. They say that they want to check irregularities in the decision.

“If they suspect irregularities, they can follow due course of law to move impeachment motion against concerned judges. But they cannot undermine the independence of judiciary,” added Lalit Bahadur Basnet, a constitutional lawyer.

Earlier this year, in January, a division bench of SC judges Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet had passed the verdict revoking the earlier decision to blacklist the Mills.

This case was then taken up by the PAC after five major banks wrote a joint letter to the parliament in August demanding that Supreme Court (SC) judge duo Arjun Prasad Singh and Badri Kumar Basnet be subjected to impeachment since their decision hampered in the recovery of loans. The banks claimed that the decision by the two judges six months ago ordering the withdrawal of Mahalaxmi Sugar Mills from the black list of willful defaulters was ‘intentional’ and caused losses to the tune of over Rs 1.22 billion.

The five banks and commercial institutions that wrote the letter include Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Nepal Bank Limited (NBL), Himalayan Bank, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Nepal Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC).

The Non Performing Loans of the banks have become one of the greatest problems of financial sector of the country at present. Just two days ago World Bank country director Ken Ohashi had said in a public program that huge outstanding loans of banks is a “question of survival for the market system in Nepal and not merely for banks.” Officials have said that the total outstanding loans to banks stand at Rs 28.73 billion – almost one quarter of total annual budget.