Kathmandu, Sept. 30 -- Supreme Court justices questioned Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma's leadership at a full-court meeting on Monday, a day after police took former chief justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana from his home and held him for about 12 hours before releasing him.

The justices said the Supreme Court had become embroiled in controversy within months of Sharma's appointment, citing renewed activity by court middlemen and growing public scrutiny of how justice is administered.

The detention of Rana, who was taken from his Maharajgunj residence shortly after midnight on Sunday, also unsettled the justices. Police did not show his family an arrest warrant and later said he had been taken to a safe place because of a security threat...