We Reap What We Sow in the past!! Nepal is one of the MOST Failure states in the world because in a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious country Mono-religion has been imposed as a national code of conduct and promoted caste system by the past rulers and their advisors. "Before the unification of Nepal, the common feature among the principalities was the recognition of law based on the dharmashasthra viz Veda smirities, puranas, commentaries. Nibandha usage customes sanads were issued where dharmashasthras customs usage were silent in particular needful situation King Prithivi Narayan Shah assigned the responsibility of justice to Dharmaadhikara. King was the foundation of law and justice. He established both the trial and appellate courts in all provincial and district level courts. Pundits of Brahmin caste were appointed as representatives of dharmadhikari, who were responsible for the application of law and religion in all cases. Principles of equality were ignored; the caste system was prevalent, and criminals were treated in accordance with their caste status. The king and his descendants ruled the country with the help of the royal edicts (panjapatra), customs, conventions, and moral law, local custom, and religious instruments. The laws before the codification (country code) were based on Hindu religious texts and practice, and disputes were settled by the village chieftains, pundits, and local land lords. There were many other legal charters in the form of sanads, sawal, lalmohar, and so on. Jung Bahadur Rana, an ambitious and shrewd courtier, installed the Rana regime in 1846, and made the position of prime minister hereditary to the Rana family and maintained the status quo in every field. Jung Bahadur visited England and France in 1849 to observe their legal structure. The English and French court structure, the Code Napoleon and Civil Code of France, influenced him. During his visit, he was impressed by the governmental institution of their mode of functioning as well. After his return from Europe, he started to review the laws of Nepal, and in 1851 he appointed a Law Council (Ain Kausal). The Ain Kaushal worked diligently for almost three years, and finally on 5th January 1854, the Country Code (Muluki Ain) was promulgated. The code has 163 chapters and covers about 1400 pages. It deals with criminal and civil law, as well as provisions relating to administrative law, land law, regulation for the management of revenues administration, land survey, and so forth. The Code (Muliki Ain1854) embodied the various Nepali customs, laws, uses, social norms, and royal proclamations, including untouchability and punitive action for breaking of the caste hierarchy, making legal the traditional rules of the caste-based discrimination in Nepal. The country code of 1854, the first code of modern Nepal, was thus based on Hindu jurisprudence and incorporated the diverse castes and ethnic groups of Nepal into the framework of national caste hierarchy." - KANAK BIKRAM THAPA, a Professor of Law and Former Dean, Faculty of Law, Tribhuvan University of Nepal, Kathmandu.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 05:16:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015