The Supreme Court's Constitutional Bench has annulled a government recommendation for presidential clemency to UCPN (Maoist) leader and former lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel, who was convicted in the murder of Ujjain Kumar Shrestha. Dhungel was convicted of murdering Ujjan Kumar Shrestha of Okhaldhunga in 1998, is not eligible for amnesty. "As a decision taken to provide undue benefit to any one individual contradicts the right to equality, the right to fair trial, the finality of court verdicts and the principle of rule of law, the cabinet's recommendation to provide amnesty cannot be allowed to be executed. Such a recommendation is thus annulled through this order," the bench stated.
