Nepal, July 21 -- The fallout from the Gen Z protests of last September has reduced Nepal's courtrooms to administrative and architectural ruin, exposing their fundamental fragility. The scale of the destruction during the protests is staggering, yet the subsequent standstill of the legal system suggests that the crisis is as much structural as it is physical. If the state is to restore the rule of law, it cannot do so simply by rebuilding the infrastructure. It must radically decentralise the seat of justice.

The statistics released for fiscal year 2025-26 represent an unprecedented collapse in judicial output. The national case clearance rate, which stood at 65.69 percent in the previous year, has plummeted to a mere 55 percent. Out of...