CJ Rana to review Constitutional Bench amid questions, hearing to resume on June 6

KATHMANDU, June 1: Hearing on the writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives at the Supreme Court  will resume on June 6 as Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR agreed to review the composition of the Constitutional Bench following the questions raised by the petitioners and advocates.

Chief Justice Rana from the bench said, “Now, the Bench will be formed by determining the justices on the bench on the basis of seniority.”

Chief Justice Rana on Friday formed the five-member Bench under his leadership to test the constitutionality of the House dissolution, including Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur KC and Bam Kumar Shrestha. 

Though the hearing over the writ petitions filed against the dissolution of HoR was started from Friday, it had not moved ahead focusing on the issue following the row over formation of the bench. The petitioners demanded that Justices duo KC and Shrestha not be included in the Bench. 

Saying Justice Shrestha had made a verdict over the name of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Justice KC had quashed  a petition to review the apex court’s verdict to invalidate NCP, law practitioners, who have been pleading for writ petitioners, argued that they [Shrestha and KC] should not sit in the bench. 

Meanwhile, two other Justices—Dr Bhattarai and Karki-- announced they would not remain in the constitutional bench after KC and Shrestha informed them in written that they would not leave the bench.

More than two dozen writ petitions have been registered in the court challenging President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s move to dissolve the House for the second time on May 22. Twenty-six writs including the one filed by a group of 146 members in the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR) demand the restoration of the lower House of parliament and appointment of NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister of Nepal as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal. 

Similarly, four people including advocates Dhanjeet Basnet, Krishna Ghimire and Rajaram Ghimire reached the court demanding that Prime Minister Oli should be reappointed as the prime minister as per the Article 76 (5) of the constitution being based on his claim of commanding a majority in parliament. 

The writs seeking the re-appointment of Oli and the elections within the scheduled dates state that President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s May 21 decision to dismiss the claim staked by PM Oli  was against the Political Parties Act, 2017.

It may be noted that the President refused to entertain the proposals submitted on May 21 by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, in response to her call for the formation of a government under Article 76 (5), staking a claim to the appointment on the Prime Ministerial post, citing that both applications failed to prove of commanding a majority in the parliament.  

The majority of writs (26) seek to repeal the President’s May 22 move to dissolve the HoR on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers and announce the fresh (mid-term) polls for November 12 and 19.