Challenges Of Local Judicial Committees

This writer had an opportunity to visit local municipalities recently to interact with local judicial committee members and gauge the issues and challenges faced by them while discharging their duties. Judicial committees have become functionally effective in ensuring that justice is accessible to the people living in rural vicinities of Nepal, as premised by the federal constitution. The constitutional provision about judicial committee enshrined in Article 217 has been elaborated by the Local Governance Operation Act 2017, laying out the process and procedure regarding the scope and modus operandi of its work. A general review of the functioning of the judicial committees in rural municipalities (Gaunpalika) and municipalities (Nagarpalika) reveals that they are mostly caught in a dilemma as to how to carry out their roles and responsibilities.