Petition filed against new transitional justice law in Supreme Court

KATHMANDU: A writ petition has been registered in the Supreme Court demanding the annulment of the recently passed transitional justice-related law.

Advocates Gyan Basnet and Shyam Krishna Maske filed the petition on Tuesday, arguing that the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Bill, which the President authenticated on August 29, is perpetrator-friendly.

“Even serious cases of human rights violations like murder, violence, hostage-taking, mutilation, arson, extrajudicial killings, and torture, which the Geneva Convention, considers crimes against humanity and war crimes, have been categorized as ‘general violations of human rights’, they have said in the petition.

The petitioners have also said that the new law is silent on rape, torture, and killings committed by armed individuals against other armed individuals, as well as killings and torture after surrender. They have also questioned why the law has provisions for a 75% sentence reduction even for serious crimes.

The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing in the case for September 11.