Hearing on House dissolution case resumes from today

KATHMANDU, June 23: Hearing on the writ petitions registered against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) is scheduled to resume from Wednesday. 

The Constitutional Bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR, which  refused to issue an interim order as demanded by the petitioners, on June 9,  asked the defendants including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the Office of President and the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) to submit a written response by Tuesday. 

PM Oli and President Bidya Devi Bhandari submitted the written response to the Supreme Court earlier on June 17. 

As many as 26 writ petitions have been filed at the apex court demanding it reinstate the 275-member lower house of parliament, while four other petitions have asked the court to issue an order to appoint KP Sharma Oli as the prime minister as per the Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal. 

The five-member Constitutional Bench comprising Justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Shrestha along with CJ Rana himself has been hearing the case. 

It is to be noted that President Bidya Devi Bhandari, at the recommendation of the KP Oli-led Cabinet, dissolved the House on May 22. It is the second time in five months that the lower house got dissolved. Earlier, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench had restored the House, which was dissolved on December 20, 2020, on March 7.