By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 24: The Supreme Court on Wednesday referred all writs filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives to the Constitutional Bench.
A single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR decided to refer the cases to the constitutional bench which is formulated to interpret the debate related to constitution.
The single bench ordered to refer all the writs to constitutional bench stating that the issue was subject to constitutional interpretation.
Now, hearing of all the writ petitions regarding dissolution of the HoR will begin in the constitutional bench on Friday.
Prior to this, hearing of only one writ petition was scheduled in the constitutional bench. Of the total 13 writs filed against the government's decision to dissolve the lower House, 12 writs were scheduled to be heard in regular bench.
The order given by the single bench of the Chief Justice states, "As the issues raised in the writ petition is related to interpretation of Articles 76 (1), (7) and 85 of the Constitution of Nepal, the petitions should be presented before the constitutional bench as per Article 137 (3)."
In the preliminary hearing of the writs, the petitioners had demanded interim order to reinstate the dissolved HoR.
Likewise, arguments to immediately issue interlocutory order to refer the case to special bench were also presented. However, the Chief Justice's bench, stating that the case called for constitutional interpretation, referred the case to the constitutional bench.
Hearing of the writ petitions 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 Nepal Communist Party leader Dev Prasad Gurung was done on Wednesday. The court, however, did not ask for written statement of defense from the defendant.
Currently, 10 justices including the Chief Justice are in the roster for the constitutional bench. The bench will be formed from at least five members of the roster. Currently, justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Dr. Aananda Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Sapana Pradhan Malla are the members of the constitutional bench.
If the constitutional bench issues an interim order as per the demand of the petitioners, the HoR will be reinstated. Also, if the constitutional bench decides against the petitioners, the dissolution of the lower House will be upheld and the legal path for the mid-term election will be opened.
The HoR was dissolved by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on December 20 on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. After the dissolution, a proposal of no-confidence against the Prime Minister, signed by 90 members of NCP, was registered in the parliament secretariat.