Some lawyers of Nepalgunj filed this petition because District Court Banke denied to release the prisoners when the full bench of the Supreme Court already decided to release the prisoners who are sentenced to up to 1 year of imprisonment if they apply for being released from prison. The writ petition has claimed that the prisoners who are convicted for the first time and serving up to 1 year of imprisonment should be released as per the decision of the Supreme Court upon payment of charges under Section 155(1) of the Muluki Penal Code 2074. The petitioners requested the high court to issue order of habeus corpus and other necessary orders as per Article 144(1)(20 of the Constitution, Section 8(1) of Judicial Administration Act 2073 and Rule 39 of High Court Regulations 2073.

The Supreme Court ordered to release prisoners serving up to 1 year of imprisonment in order to decrease crowd in the prison upon payment of Nrs. 300 per day for the remaining imprisonment period. To avail this facility, 21 prisoners of Nepalgunj Prison filed an application at District Court Banke. 3 of them were released. On 8 April 2020, the District Court Banke refused to release 10 prisoners. 11 legal professional released a statement on 9 April against the decision of the Court and later filed the writ of habeus corpus.

Nepal Bar Association, the umbrella organization of lawyers has released a statement stating that the District Court Banke has not shown positive response in protecting the rights of prisoners during this hour of crisis. The statement further mentions that the decision of the Supreme Court aims to protect right to life of prisoners during this pandemic which should be implemented by all judicial bodies. However, when the applications to be released were registered at District Court Banke, the court delayed the hearing and even with the delayed hearing decided to not release the prisoners which shows that the District Court Banke has not shown positive response in protecting the rights of the prisoners and implementing the decision of the Supreme Court. Furthermore, apart from the prisoners, the Banke District Court also delayed the hearing of the juveniles who had also filed application to be released from Child Correction Home. Despite the circulation of the decision of the Supreme Court, Banke District Court has not shown positive steps to implement the decision.

Show-cause order of High Court Tulsipur- Nepalgunj Bench
Justice Pawan Sharma of High Court Nepalgunj Bench issued a show-cause order against the Banke District Court to submit their response within 7 days through Office of the Public Prosecutor.