By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 26: The Supreme Court has ordered the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers and the President’s Office to submit the original documents related to the dissolution of the House of Representatives.
The hearing done at the constitutional bench of the SC on Friday ordered to present the documents via Office of Attorney General by January 3, 2021.
The order also stated that the hearing of the writ petitions would be held regularly from January 6.
As the writ petitions mentioned that the proposal of no confidence motion against the Prime Minister was registered in the Lower House of the Federal Parliament, the constitutional bench led by the Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana also ordered to produce documents regarding the registration along with the details as to the date and time of registration of the proposal from the Federal Parliament Secretariat.
The apex court had also asked all the details regarding the number of members of House of Representatives prior to its dissolution.
The constitutional bench is comprised of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha and Tej Bahadur KC.
On December 23, a single bench of the Chief Justice had referred all 12 writ petitions filed against the HoR dissolution, while one writ petition was already scheduled on the constitutional bench.
The writ petitions were filed by Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Amrit Kharel, Lokendra Bahadur Oli, Gyanendra Raj Aaran, Salikram Sapkota, Kamal Bahadur Khatri, Maniram Upadhyaya, Dinesh Tripathi, Amita Gautam, Dipak Rai, Tulasi Simkhada and Dev Prasad Gurung of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
If the constitutional bench issues interim order or writ as per the demand of petitioners, the House will be reinstated. Also, if the constitutional bench decides against the favour of the petitioners, the dissolution of the Lower House will be upheld and the legal path for the mid-term election will be cleared.
The House of Representatives was dissolved by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on December 20 on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.