Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has submitted an 18-point written response to Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday defending his move to dissolve the House of Representatives.
The Prime Minister has argued that he had recommended dissolving the Parliament as per the constitutional obligation entrusted to him as ‘there was no basis for the formation of an alternative government’.
PM Oli has said that the multi-party system will be pushed to a crisis if the court decides to appoint Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister, adding that the majority would not be determined by the number of parliamentarians as the Constitution has adopted a multi-party parliamentary system.
“Running the Parliament and the government as demanded by the writ petitioners would revive the partyless system like Panchayat,” PM Oli said.
Similarly, PM Oli has argued that the court cannot appoint a Prime Minister.
“Opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has demanded to be appointed as Prime Minister. The court is to interpret the Constitution and the law, it can’t play the role of legislature or executive. This is a political and executive process. Article 76 gives rights to appoint Prime Minister only to the President.”
The Prime Minister responded to a show-cause notice issued by the Constitutional Bench of the apex court to defendants over the dissolution of the House of Representatives.
Legal practitioners and opposition alliance had moved the court after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives at midnight on May 21 and announced mid-term elections to be held in two phases.
The opposition alliance had moved the court with signatures of 146 lawmakers seeking a mandamus order to reinstate the House of Representatives and appoint Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as Prime Minister. Writs have been also filed demanding to appoint KP Oli as Prime Minister as per Article 76(5) of the Constitution.
The bench will perform a continuous hearing on writs filed against the dissolution from June 23.
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