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NepalTHE JUDICIAL SYSTEM, NEPAL
The Legal Code
The judicial system initiated under the Ranas, despite
some
limited reforms, remained traditional in character in the
early
1990s. The Muluki Ain of 1854, the legal code introduced
by the
first Rana prime minister, Jang Bahadur Rana, combined
ancient
Hindu sanctions and customary law and common laws modeled
on the
British and Indian codes with the rules of behavior that
had
evolved over the centuries among the Newars in the
Kathmandu Valley
(see The Kot Massacre
, ch. 1).
The Muluki Ain was amended several times and was
completely
revised in 1963. Over the years, the Muluki Ain blended
royal
edicts, proclamations, and piecemeal legislation. The
entire corpus
of law was consolidated in a compilation called the Ain
Sangraha.
Customs were applied in the absence of legislative
provisions or
judicial procedures.
The revised code sought to promote social harmony and
declared
all persons theoretically equal in the eyes of the law,
thus ending
legal discrimination based on caste, creed, and sex. The
code
granted the right to divorce, permitted intercaste
marriages, and
abolished the laws sanctioning untouchability. These
provisions
were drafted at the behest of the king. A uniform family
law was
applicable to all religious communities and was contained
in the
Muluki Ain. When the code was silent, however, the custom
of the
particular community applied. The code remained the
existing
substantive law in 1991.
Data as of September 1991
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