Justice Bhattarai to hear writ petition demanding withdrawal of no-confidence motion against Lumbini CM Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Aug 11: Justice Dr Anand Mohan Bhattarai has been assigned to hear the writ petition filed at the Supreme Court (SC) demanding the withdrawal of the no-confidence motion filed against Chief Minister of Lumbini Province, Shankar Pokharel. 

A former minister and member of the Lumbini Province Assembly representing ruling CPN-UML, Lila Giri, knocked at the apex court’s door on Monday. 

The case schedule has been assigned to Justice Bhattarai for Wednesday. 

In his writ petition, Giri argued that no-confidence motion cannot be filed against CM Pokharel as he was appointed in his capacity of the parliamentary party leader of the largest party in the provincial assembly as per Article 168 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal. According to Giri, such a motion can not be registered for at least two years of such an appointment. 

Opposition parties including the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center) and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), however, urged the newly appointed Province Chief Amik Sherchan to summon a special session of the provincial assembly. Later on, they also filed a no-confidence motion on August 3.