KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has stayed the appointment of Bamdev Gautam as a member of the National Assembly. Issuing an interim order today, the apex court barred the National Assembly from providing Gautam any responsibility in the upper house.
The stay order has made the fate of Gautam’s journey to the federal parliament uncertain at least for a few days.
In response to a writ petition filed by advocate Dinesh Tripathi and Badri Raj Bhatta, a single-bench led by justice Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai issued an interim order blocking Gautam’s appointment as a member of the National Assembly until another hearing.
Demanding the court’s intervention to strike down the appointment of Gautam as the National Assembly member by President Bidya Devi Bhandari upon the cabinet’s recommendation and bar him from becoming a minister, the advocate duo had moved to the apex court on Sunday .
The apex court said that the hearing on whether Gautam is qualified to become the National Assembly member will be held at the Constitutional Bench on September 30 (next Wednesday). The next hearing is expected to either continue or vacate the stay order.
The writ has made the Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, secretariat of the National Assembly, the main ruling Nepal Communist Party and Gautam as defendants.
Earlier last week, President Bhandari had appointed Gautam as a member of the National Assembly upon the recommendation of the cabinet. One of the three posts as members of the National Assembly that the government appoint had fallen vacant after Yuba Raj Khatiwada’s two-year term expired in February.
