Writ regarding legality of Koshi Provincial Government sent to full bench

KATHMANDU, July 24: The writ challenging the legality of the Koshi Provincial Government will now be heard by the full bench of the Supreme Court. The joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Sushmalata Mathema and Til Prasad Shrestha gave the order to send the writ petition to the full bench.

The spokesperson of the Supreme Court informed Ratopati that the writ filed by the leader of the UML Parliamentary party, Hikmat Kumar Karki, was heard by the joint bench of the two Supreme Court Justices, who ordered to send the writ to the full bench.

The lawyer who argued on behalf of the writ petitioner demanded that the writ petition be sent to the constitutional bench. However, since the constitutional bench is headed by the Chief Justice and Chief Justice Harikrishna Karki has already announced that he will not sit on the bench from July 5 onwards as he is going on a compulsory retirement on August 5, it has been decided to send the writ petition to the full bench, it was informed.

The full bench of the Supreme Court will start hearing the writ petition on Tuesday. 

The leader of the UML parliamentary party, Hikmat Kumar Karki filed a writ petition, after Uddhav Thapa, the leader of the Congress parliamentary party in the Koshi province used the signature of Speaker Baburam Gautam to obtain a majority for the formation of the government. Karki filed the writ petition claiming that the government formation process itself is flawed as the majority was obtained by using the signature of the Speaker.