The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement to arrest Laxmimahto Koiri, who was elected from Mahottari Constituency No. 1 in the House of Representatives election. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement to arrest Koiri only. But thousands of people who have been convicted in court decisions across the country have yet to be arrested.
The total cost up to last financial year is 1 lakh 6 thousand 2 years 5 months 25 days imprisonment is yet to be paid. 16 billion 31 crore 17 lakh 13 thousand 525 rupees fine is yet to be recovered. According to the statistics of the year 2077/078, imprisonment and fines are increasing due to non-payment.
Due to the failure to arrest and pay the fines, the culprits of the judgments passed by the courts across the country have been sentenced to more than a billion rupees in fines and more than a million years of imprisonment. According to the data of the Supreme Court, impunity is increasing in the country when the convicts abscond from the court and the concerned authorities are unable to collect the prescribed fines.
The District Court is not only a body that processes cases but also implements decisions made by different levels of courts. Impunity is increasing in the country due to the non-implementation of court decisions. Due to the non-implementation of judgments in various criminal cases, more than 100,000 years of imprisonment have yet to be paid. Those found guilty of corruption, money laundering, banking offences, foreign employment, drugs, murder, fraud, theft and robbery, fraud, human trafficking and others are sentenced to imprisonment and fines by the court. The district courts have been saying that most of the convicts have changed their names, surnames, and addresses and are hiding, so the fines have not been recovered.
There is a legal provision to send a bill for imprisonment and fine to the respective district after the full text of the decision of the related case. Arrests are not made in appeal cases. The High Court which decides has sent the report to the District Court where the concerned person is. Deepak Dahal, Information Officer of Kathmandu District Court, says that even if it is attached to other outside district courts, it is sent. ‘When the money comes, the police are assigned by the court to destroy it. In some cases, the police have arrested from the district court,” he said.
Nepal Police has a special role in implementing court decisions. The National Human Rights Commission has mentioned that the police did not pay attention to the previous year’s report as well. “The responsibility of arresting fugitive criminals lies with the police,” the report states. Even now, the expected improvement in impunity has not come.’
It seems that the cost of recovery in criminal cases from district courts across the country is increasing every year. There is also a problem in the implementation of directive orders issued by the court in public interest writ petitions.
The Human Rights Commission has also repeatedly told the government through letters and reports to end impunity. According to the commission, impunity is increasing because the state is unable to arrest those convicted by the court due to various reasons. The Commission is of the opinion that the crime incidents have recurred due to the failure to implement the decisions made by the courts to make the steps taken against impunity more effective while respecting the rule of law and human rights. The commission says that the government and political parties should be responsible for ending the current state of impunity.
