Kathmandu: The hearing on cases filed at the Supreme Court (SC) against the dissolution of the House of Representatives has been adjourned until Sunday.
A five-member Constitutional Bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR started hearing the cases on Friday. The court was adjourned until Sunday after a brief hearing. During the hearing, advocates questioned if Justice Bam Kumar Shrestha fits on the bench as he had delivered a verdict that didn’t acknowledge the unification between the UML and CPN (Maoist Center) to form Nepal Communist Party.
Earlier today, the apex court formed a five-member Constitutional Bench comprising CJ Rana, Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur KC, and Bam Kumar Shrestha.
A total of 30 writs have been filed against the dissolution. A total of 146 of the dissolved Parliament and 26 other writ petitioners are for the reinstatement of the House of Representatives.
Advocates Dhanjeet Basnet, Krishna Bhandari and Rajaram Ghimire among others had registered separate writs, calling for re-appointment of Prime Minister Oli who has presented the basis that he commands majority support in the HoR.
The four writs calling for the re-appointment of Oli to the post of Prime Minister and for holding the mid-term election in the stipulated date itself argue that the President’s decision of May 21 stating that Oli could not be reappointed to the post of PM as a solid basis was not seen that he would secure a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives in accordance with Article 76(5) of the Constitution of Nepal was against the Act Concerning Political Parties, 2073 BS.
These four writs also contend that the President’s decision saying PM Oli could not be reappointed to the post of Prime Minister was against the provision of the Act as well as against the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
The writs have sought annulment of the President’s this decision and reappointment of CPN-UML Parliamentary Party leader Oli to the post of Prime Minister.
The 146 outgoing MPs including Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the then UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal’s Chairman Upendra Yadav, and Durga Poudel of the Rastriya Janamorcha, have, however, in their writ, sought reinstatement of the HoR and appointing Deuba to the post of Prime Minister.
The writ petition filed by the lawmakers has demanded that NC leader Deuba becomes a new PM in line with Article 76 (5) of the Constitution and the HoR be reinstated.
Other demands include annulment of the President’s decision of May 22 dissolving the HoR and fixing the date for the mid-term election for November 12 and 19 on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers should be termed unconstitutional and illegal.
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