Nepal’s Supreme Court burned down, decades of case records destroyed

On Tuesday afternoon, court hearings were about to end and many lawyers were leaving for their offices when a group of protesters suddenly entered the Supreme Court premises.

They first went into the record sections where case documents and files are stored. According to an eyewitness staff member, the protesters piled the documents together and set them on fire. Another group repeated the same action in two or three more sections, burning important files.

The main Supreme Court building has a large three-story window at the front, topped by a Shri Yantra, a symbol of justice. Staff members used to worship it every day before starting court work. The fire destroyed both the window and the Shri Yantra.

After starting fires on lower floors, the protesters went straight to the third floor. The first floor of the court houses the benches, the second has the Chief Justice’s office, meeting halls, and the registrar’s office, while the third floor contains the court’s data center.

A senior court official said, “The third floor is the most sensitive place. The entire digital archive of the Supreme Court was there. Protesters directly set fire to the data center, then spread the fire elsewhere.”

The limited number of security personnel could not stop the large group of protesters. Another group later targeted the annex building, where the archives section was located. This building stored old case files and past verdicts. A staff member said, “Now we have nothing left, only ashes.”

The Supreme Court had a backup data center in Hetauda, but it too was attacked and burned. Because of this, the court’s website is now down, and its software system for handling cases has stopped working.

In recent years, many files were being digitized, but old cases still required paper documents for hearings. With the archives destroyed, all evidence is gone, and many cases face uncertainty. Judges’ written verdicts stored in computers were also lost in the fire. The Special Court, which was also leading in digital transformation, suffered damage as well.

The protesters entered the Supreme Court a second time. It is unclear if it was the same group or others. By then, the bar and the Supreme Bar Association had already been set on fire. The second group targeted the printing section of Kanoon Patrika (Law Journal) and the storage room for past publications.

The court had also built a Judicial Museum in recent years, collecting items of historic and cultural importance with the help of judges’ personal efforts. Protesters set that museum on fire too.

The Office of the Attorney General was attacked in a similar style. Protesters gathered documents in one place and burned them. Employees said the attacks on the Attorney General’s Office, Supreme Court, and District Courts all followed the same pattern.

The district courts, as well as the District Government Attorney’s Office and Special Government Attorney’s Office in Maitighar, were also attacked in the same way. Protesters burned piles of documents and left. Vehicles parked inside the Supreme Court premises were also torched, though no count has been made.

A Supreme Court judge said the judiciary’s entire record system has collapsed. “We make decisions based on documents and evidence. Now nothing remains. This is not the work of a few months or years—it is the work of decades. Everything is ashes,” he said.

With both data centers destroyed, courts across the country cannot function. Another judge said there would be collective discussions on Wednesday morning to find a way forward.

“During the earthquake, we still managed to continue service. Today everything is ashes, but we will try to open the courts in some symbolic way,” he said. “In this crisis, we all stand together, and through collective effort, we will try to restart something.”