Nepal, May 12 -- Prime Minister Balendra Shah's decision to recommend the fourth-in-line justice, Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, as Nepal's next chief justice has triggered one of the loudest debates over judicial independence in recent years. Balen's supporters see the move as a long-overdue challenge to the entrenched culture of political bargaining and "setting" within the judiciary.

Critics, who had earlier opposed the government's move to introduce and promulgate ordinances by suspending an already-summoned parliamentary session, warn that the decision could open the door to executive control over the Supreme Court. One of the ordinances was used to appoint Sharma as the next chief justice by bypassing the decade-old convention of appointi...