The Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission of the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala has rejected the request for three months time by the defendant of the Case no. 20. As per the report by Tibet Sun, the Tibetan court has served a notice to the defending lawyer ruling the rejection of his request for more time during the first hearing of the case.
Former representative to North America, Former speaker of Tibetan Parliament in Exile, Mr. Penpa Tsering has lodged a defamation case against the Dr. Lobsang Sangay led cabinet of CTA in May 2018. He asserts that “false charges” were leveled against him by the Cabinet while the cabinet pointed out 10 points explanation in ousting him from the representative’s post in Washington DC in November 2017.
The first hearing of the case at the Supreme Justice Commission began on June 5. While the first hearing mostly involved demanding clarifications on the responses submitted by the defending lawyer earlier. Although no significant decisions were taken at the first hearing, the defendant lawyer appealed for a stay in the case by three months so that he could prepare answers to the court’s questions.
“Opposing the appeal, Penpa Tsering argued that the lawsuit was filed in May last year, giving enough time for defense to prepare all the answers. He opined that the Sangay and his Cabinet were not taking the case seriously when Dakpa appealed for the deferment.” explained the report.
Although the court has rejected the appeal for the stay, it has not announced the date for the next hearing. The court has said that it will publicly announce the date for next hearing when it has finalized it. The high profile case between Penpa Tsering and President Lobsang Sangay led Cabinet (Kashag) is popularly being referred as case no 20, as defined by the court.
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