Kathmandu, Feb 1: Chairperson of National Assembly (NA) Ganesh Prasad Timilsina has objected to the move of House of Representatives (HoR) Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota for unilaterally returning the Constitutional Council’s recommendations.

Organizing a press meet at the Federal Parliament building in Singh Durbar today, Timilsina said that he had an objection over the returning of the original letter of the recommendations, the jurisdiction over it, and the way of returning the letter and content of letter used by the Speaker.

He mentioned that the role of both houses HoR and NA are equal in a bicameral parliamentary system therefore speaker alone cannot take the decision in such cases. ”With this unilateral decision of the Speaker, the role and respect of the upper House has been undermined” Timilsina argued.

Timilsina added that the joint committees of the federal parliament are equally responsible to both houses and both chiefs of the houses are equally responsible to make any decision.

The NA Chair added that returning the recommendation letter to the constitutional council was a unilateral decision of Speaker Sapkota, which the upper house and he himself does not endorse.

“Any recommendations received in the federal parliament from any authorized bodies are the property of both houses therefore it should be executed with the consent of both houses,” he said.

Chairman Timilsina further argued that the CC’s recommendations to various posts in the constitutional bodies were made following due process in his presence as well and was forwarded to the parliamentary hearing committee before the recommendation to dissolve the HoR.