Jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of Local Government in Nepal

According to article 217 of the Constitution of Nepal (2015), a three-member judicial committee to be coordinated by its Vice-Chairperson or Deputy Mayor of a Village Body and a Municipality, in order to settle disputes under their respective jurisdictions in accordance with the law.

The jurisdiction with powers, functions, and duties of Judicial Committees stated in chapter 8 (provision related judicial function) of the Local government Operation Act 2017 (Sthaniya Sarkar Sanchalan Ain, 2074). The provisions mentioned in the Act jurisdiction of Judicial Committee deals and carry out with two specific power and functions as given below;

a) Right to settle the disputes through the Committee, and (section 47 (1))
b) Right to settle the Disputes through mediation only (Section 47(2)).

A. The following disputes that the Judicial Committee shall settle;
(a) Border/boundary of land, dams, ditches, or distribution and use of water
(b) Damage to other crops
(c) Pastureland, green fodder, fuelwood,
(d) Unpaid wages
(e) Lost or found of domestic animals and birds
(f) Not caring and looking after elderly citizens
(g) Not providing decent food and clothing or education to minor children or husband-wife
(h) House rent and house rent facility with amount up to twenty-five hundred thousand annually
(i) Planting of trees to affect other’s house, land, or property
(j) Throwing water from one’s house or verandah to others house, land, or public road
(k) Not leaving the area of land to be left as per the law while constructing a house with a window towards the land of the immediate neighbor
(l) Not allowed to use or causing obstruction to a road being used publicly since ancient times even though it is under the right or ownership of any individual, way out for cattle, pasture for grazing cattle, drain, canal, pond, rest place, cremation site, religious site or any other public location
(m) Other disputes designated by the federal or provincial law to be resolved by the local level.

B. The following disputes that the Judicial Committee shall only mediate;

a) A land other than the government, public, or community land owned by one is encroached by other
(b) Construction of a house or any structure in a land other than the government, public, or community land, noting belonging to the person but of others
(c) Divorce between wife and husband
(d) Physical assault that could be liable to a maximum of one year of imprisonment, other than those leading to the dismemberment
(e) Defamation
(f) Looting and assault
(g) Leaving cattle stray or affecting others due to negligence in course of keeping animals and birds
(h) Unauthorized entry to other’s residence
(i) Cultivating or possessing land that is in other’s possession
(j) Affecting neighbor with sound pollution or throwing the solid waste
(k) Other civil disputes filed by an individual as claimant could be mediated as per prevalent law and criminal disputes that could lead to up to one year’s imprisonment.

Note: It is an unofficial translation based on the Local government Operation Act, 2017 (Sthaniya Sarkar Sanchalan Ain, 2074) of Nepal.