KATHMANDU – The Constitutional Bench has scheduled the hearing on the cases filed to challenge the government’s move to dissolve the parliament. All petitions filed against the dissolution of the parliament are scheduled for the hearing today at the Constitutional Bench.
The five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana will examine whether the decision to dissolve the parliament is in line with the constitution. Other members in the bench include Hari Krishna Karki, Biswombhar Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha and Tej Bahadur KC.
Following the hearing today, the Constitutional Bench is likely to decide whether to issue interim order to stay the decision of dissolving the parliament. Similarly, the Constitutional Bench will also fix the date for the next hearing In addition to one petition filed by advocate Santosh Bhandari, a single bench of Rana at the Supreme Court had forwarded 12 other cases at the Constitutional Bench on Wednesday.
Nearly half a dozen lawyers had moved to the apex court demanding the annulment of the government decision to dissolve the parliament and set dates for midterm election.
Senior advocates Dinesh Tripathi, Kanchan Krishna Neupane and Lokendra Bahadur Oli had filed the writ petition immediately after the President Bidya Devi Bhandari, upon the government’s recommendation, dissolved the HoR and set the new date for midterm election on Sunday.
Similarly, the ruling Nepal Communist Party’s Chief Whip Dev Bahadur Gurung had also filed the writ seeking the court’s intervention to overturn the government’s decision. The petitioners have argued that the government does not have a constitutional and legal right to dissolve the HoR.
