Constitution Bench to hear Nepal Parliament dissolution issue

Kathmandu, December 23

The Supreme Court of Nepal forwarded to a Constitution Bench all the writ petitions against PM KP Oli’s move to dissolve the parliament.

Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana’s single bench passed the order after a preliminary hearing on the 12 different writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives. The Bench will start the hearing on Friday.

Although the petitioners demanded an interim order against the decision, the apex court has refused to issue any such order. Meanwhile, leaders of the Prachanda-led faction have told the election commission that they hold a two-thirds majority in the party and therefore they must be granted official recognition by the election body. “We are here with the proof that we are the only legitimate Nepal Communist Party,” Leela Mani Pokharel, a standing committee member of the party, was quoted as saying by the paper.

Meanwhile, Nepal Communist Party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda was elected the ruling party’s new parliamentary leader, replacing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Sixty-six-year-old Prachanda’s nomination was proposed by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was earlier named one of the two chairmen of the party, at a parliamentary party meeting of the Prachanda-led faction at the parliament building in New Baneshwar, a report said.

Oli, 68, was removed from the post of party’s chairman on Tuesday by a central committee meeting of the Prachanda-led faction, which also decided to take disciplinary action against him for dissolving the House of Representatives unconstitutionally.

Prachanda said his first priority would be to restore the dissolved House of Representatives and form a new government. “I will unify all the democratic forces and political parties to keep the hard-won political system and parliament lively and functioning,” he said.

He thanked lawmakers for electing him the parliamentary leader and said that he had been handed over a huge responsibility during this challenging time. — PTI

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