Senior Advocate Raman Kumar Shrestha Challenges Legitimacy of Nepali Congress Special Convention

Kathmandu. During the rebuttal arguments on behalf of petitioner Sher Bahadur Deuba regarding the Nepali Congress legitimacy dispute, former Attorney General and Senior Advocate Raman Kumar Shrestha argued that a special convention cannot be chaired by anyone other than the party president.

He asserted on Friday that the very purpose of the special convention was invalidated the moment Shyam Krishna Khadka, an outsider, presided over the session instead of Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Addressing the opposing counsel's claim that Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka lacks legal standing, Shrestha questioned how the demand for a special convention could be considered valid if the petitioner lacked standing. He asked, if there is no standing to file a writ, how can there be standing to call for a special convention?

Furthermore, Senior Advocate Shrestha claimed that the Election Commission granted legitimacy to Gagan Kumar Thapa without any proper investigation. He questioned the bench on how the Commission could have made a decision without reviewing documents, despite claiming in its written response that the decision was based on submitted evidence, especially when the decision was made in less than 12 hours.

He alleged that forged signatures and stamps of deceased individuals and those living abroad were submitted to the Election Commission for the special convention. He argued that the Commission cannot simply accept documents and issue a decision without verifying the authenticity of the signatures, noting that the decision was made without any analysis of the evidence required under Article 51 of the party statute.

'Citing the past example of the NCP split due to a Supreme Court order, he urged the bench to ensure such a situation does not recur, stating, 'The court should consider helping the party unite rather than issuing an order that splits the Congress.'

When Judge Sharanga Subedi asked if parties splitting and merging is a common occurrence, Senior Advocate Shrestha argued that this is not merely about a party splitting, but a matter deeply connected to public concern.