KATHMANDU – A single bench of the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana has decided to send all writs filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives to the Constitutional Bench.
Following a hearing on Wednesday, the single bench led by Chief Justice Rana forwarded all 12 writs filed at the Supreme Court against the dissolution of the parliament to the Constitutional Bench.
With the decision to forward the writs, the Constitutional Bench will now decide whether the decision to dissolve the House and set dates for midterm elections is in line with the Constitution.
The Supreme Court, however, did not issue a stay order against the government as demanded by the petitioners.
Stating that the writs call for the examination of constitutional provisions, the Chief Justice-led bench decided to forward them to the Constitutional Bench, according to Advocate Lokendra Oli, a petitioner.
The hearing for the case at the Constitutional Bench has been scheduled for Friday. 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.
