KATHMANDU, Jan 26: The Supreme Court recently released a full text of the directive order it had issued asking the government to amend the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Act for its reform.

The directive order was issued by a division bench of Justices Sushma Lata Mathema and Hari Prasad Phunyal. With the order, the government has been asked to amend the NHRC Act in order for the NHRC to make its activities effective.

In the order, the government has been demanded to make public human rights violators and to ban recommendation and appointment of such violators in the constitutional bodies. It also directed for prosecution of human rights violators directly by the Attorney General as per NHRC recommendation.

The directive order was issued in September in response to a writ petition filed five years back regarding lack of effective implementation of recommendations by NHRC. The petitioner had claimed that section 13 (3) of Investigation of Enforced Disappearances Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014 was inconsistent with the constitutional provision providing the function and powers of NHC vis-à-vis Article 249 of Constitution of Nepal.

The petitioner advocate Birendra Thapaliya had demanded NHRC's jurisdiction to investigate the cases of human rights violations during armed conflict.