By Our Reporter The dispute between the Nepal Bar Association and the Judicial Council has delayed the appointment of judges in the Supreme, high and district courts. The association has been staging a sit-in at the secretariat of the Judicial Council, district, high court, and special court chapters of the Nepal Bar Association. The lawyer's body began its protest when the council is making final preparations to appoint judges across three layers of courts including in the high courts. While four judges’ positions are vacant in the Supreme Court, 16 judges are needed in various high courts. Nepal Bar Association has been against the Judicial Council ever since it amended the council’s regulations last year. Now it wants the reversal of the changes that alter the order of hierarchy among judges. The council revised the regulations in September 2023, adjusting the ranking of judges. According to the amendment published in the Nepal Gazette on September 20 last year, the chief registrar of the Supreme Court, if appointed as high court judge, would be ranked right under the chief judge of the high court. The association has termed the amendment as regressive, biased, discriminatory, arbitrary and unconstitutional, arguing that it contradicts principles established by the Supreme Court's verdicts. In December last year, the council appointed Lal Bahadur Kunwar, the apex court chief registrar, as a high court judge and placed him in the second rank after the chief judge of Patan High Court. The association claims that the amended regulations unfairly demoted judges appointed from among lawyers, placing them below career judges in the hierarchy. The five-member Judicial Council, led by the chief justice, nominates judges and justices. The council includes the law minister, the senior-most Supreme Court justice, and two advocates, one each picked by the Nepal Bar Association and the government.