Kathmandu, April 28: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday announced a verdict that the former VIPs including former President, former Vice President, former Prime Minister, former Speaker and former Chief Justice would not be entitled to the medical costs from the state coffers for receiving treatment abroad.
A constitutional bench of Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla, Justices Kumar Regmi, Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Sharanga Subedi and Abdul Aziz Musalman handed down this order by scrapping the prior provision of providing medical costs to the former VIPs.
According to SC Spokesperson Arjun Prasad Koirala, the verdict has scrapped Clause 12 (1) of the Civil Relief, Compensation and Financial Assistance Relationship (Second Amendment) Procedure, 2073 regarding the cost bearing for the medical treatment of the former VIPs in foreign countries.
The Procedure had the provision that the government would bear the medical costs for the treatment done abroad for former president, former vice president, former prime minister, former speaker and former chief justice, and a certain limit of the cost for former Deputy Speaker, former Deputy Prime Minister, former minister, former state minister, former assistant minister, former lawmaker, former officer bearers of the constitutional bodies and others.
Advocates Radhika Chamlagain and Bhadra Prasad Nepal had lodged the petition demanding to scrap the provision of the Civil Relief, Compensation and Financial Assistance Relationship (Second Amendment) Procedure.
The provision regarding the medical cost to the former VIPs for their treatment within the country is unchanged.
