KATHMANDU, June 7: Ongoing hearing on the writ petitions against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) has been postponed for Monday and Tuesday as Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR, who chairs the five-member Constitutional Bench, has some health issues.
According to Supreme Court (SC) sources, CJ JBR informed the court administration about his health issues.
The next hearing on the case will resume on Wednesday. The petitioners were informed accordingly.
Hearing on writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House Representatives (HoR), which was disrupted for a few days owing to the row over the composition of the Constitutional Bench resumed on Sunday.
The Bench, which Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR formed on May 28, comprised Justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Dr Aanand Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur KC and Bam Kumar Shrestha including Rana himself. The composition of the Bench, however, was questioned by the lawyers pleading in favor of the writ petitioners who demand the Supreme Court (SC) reinstate the 275-member lower house of parliament.
CJ Rana made the recent reshuffle on Sunday on the basis of the seniority of SC Justices. With the recent reshuffle, Justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Shrestha have been picked in the Bench headed by Rana himself. Although justice Hari Krishna Karki is third in seniority among the SC Justices, he was included in the bench owing to his health issues.
KATHMANDU, June 6:
Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR has reconstituted the five-member Constitutional Bench to hear the writ petitions filed at the Supreme Court (SC) seeking the restoration of the House of Representatives (HoR).
CJ Rana made the recent reshuffle on Sunday on the basis of the seniority of SC Justices. With the recent reshuffle, Justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Shrestha have been picked in the Bench headed by Rana himself.
As Justice Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha has some health issues,another Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada has been placed on the bench.
The newly formed Bench is scheduled to hear the petitions that challenge the dissolution of the House, on Sunday itself.
Though the hearing over the writ petitions filed against the dissolution of HoR started on May 28, it could not proceed ahead impacted by the issue following the row over formation of the bench. The petitioners demanded that Justices duo KC and Shrestha not be included in the Bench.
Saying Justice Shrestha had made a verdict over the name of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Justice KC had quashed a petition to review the apex court’s verdict to invalidate NCP, law practitioners, who have been pleading for writ petitioners, argued that they [Shrestha and KC] should not sit in the bench.
Meanwhile, two other Justices—Dr Bhattarai and Karki-- announced they would not remain in the constitutional bench after KC and Shrestha informed them in written that they would not leave the bench.
More than two dozen writ petitions have been registered in the court challenging President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s move to dissolve the House for the second time on May 22. Twenty-six writs including the one filed by a group of 146 members in the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR) demand the restoration of the lower House of parliament and appointment of NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister of Nepal as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.
Similarly, four people including advocates Dhanjeet Basnet, Krishna Ghimire and Rajaram Ghimire reached the court demanding that Prime Minister Oli should be reappointed as the prime minister as per the Article 76 (5) of the constitution being based on his claim of commanding a majority in parliament.
The writs seeking the re-appointment of Oli and the elections within the scheduled dates state that President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s May 21 decision to dismiss the claim staked by PM Oli was against the Political Parties Act, 2017.
It may be noted that the President refused to entertain the proposals submitted on May 21 by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, in response to her call for the formation of a government under Article 76 (5), staking a claim to the appointment on the Prime Ministerial post, citing that both applications failed to prove of commanding a majority in the parliament.
The majority of writs (26) seek to repeal the President’s May 22 move to dissolve the HoR on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers and announce the fresh (mid-term) polls for November 12 and 19.
KATHMANDU, May 28: Chief Justice Cholendra Shusmer JBR has formed a five-member Constitutional Bench under his leadership to hear on the writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR).
The members of the Constitutional Bench include the justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Dr Aanand Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur KC and Bam Kumar Shrestha.
Hearing on the writ petitions against the ‘unconstitutional’ dissolution of the House of Representatives at the Chief Justice-led Constitutional Bench is scheduled to begin from Friday.
Of the 30 petitions registered at the Supreme Court (SC), 19 were heard at a single-bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR on Thursday. All of them have also been forwarded to the Constitutional Bench. Writ petitioners have demanded the SC issue an interim order to restore parliament. Friday’s bench will decide whether or not to issue the interim order as sought by the petitioners.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari, upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, dissolved parliament on May 22 as per Article 76 (7) of the Constitution of Nepal.
KATHMANDU, May 27: Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher JBR has issued an order to forward the 19 writ petitions, which have been registered at the Supreme Court (SC), demanding the restoration of the House of Representatives (HoR).
Hearing the petitions on Thursday afternoon, a single-bench CJ Rana decided to forward them to the Constitutional Bench. The CJ-led five-member bench will begin hearing over the 30 writ petitions (including 11 others) starting Friday.
The petitioners have demanded the apex court restore the ‘unconstitutionally’ dissolved parliament.
Advocates Bir Bhadra Joshi, Badri Bhatta, Lokendra Oli and Dinesh Tripathi pleaded against the May 22 dissolution of the 275-member lower house of parliament, on Thursday.
