Kathmadnu, Oct. 8 -- Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma on Wednesday designated himself and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Hari Prasad Phuyal, Nahakul Subedi and Abdul Aziz Musalman to form the five-member Constitutional Bench. The other judges were assigned to 11 benches through a lottery, and all went to sit on their respective benches.

A Supreme Court justice said that of the justices who had been designated to the Constitutional Bench, Malla, Subedi and Musalman gathered in Chief Justice Sharma's chamber. Phuyal, however, said he could not sit on the bench.

"Since you became chief justice, you [Sharma] have not included me in the Constitutional Bench even once," the justice quoted Phuyal as saying. "There was a practice of forming the...