By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 7: The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) Wednesday postponed its final hearing on the 13 writ petitions filed against House dissolution for next Wednesday.
It was postponed immediately after a brief hearing today. The petitioners questioned the presence of Justice Hari Krishna Karki in the constitutional bench citing that he was the Attorney General before he was appointed justice of the SC.
After the hearing of the Court concentrated on justice Karki’s presence in the bench, Justice Karki himself said that he wanted to leave the bench.
Senior advocate Shambhu Thapa had said that the nomination of Karki in the bench was not good for the people and the country.
Karki was appointed Attorney General during Prime Minister Oli’s first tenure in 2015. He resigned from the post and was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court later. Current attorney general Agni Kharel was the one behind Karki’s nomination in the apex court. Karki and Kharel also are partners in legal profession.
A new justice will be nominated in the bench before the next hearing.
The Bench on Wednesday was all set for the hearing on all 13 writ petitions filed against the dissolution of House by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Prime Minister Oli had dissolved the House of Representatives on December 20 last year after the rift in the ruling Nepal Communist Party deepened and announced fresh polls for April 30 and May 10, two years before the tenure of the House was to end.
Opposing the move of the Prime Minister to dissolve the House, NCP leader Dev Gurung and lawyers Dinesh Tripathi, Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Lokendra Bahadur Oli, Amrit Kharel, Gyanendra Raj Aaran, Salikram Sapkota, Kamal Khatri, Maniram Upadhaya, Amita Gautam Paudel, Deepak Rai and Tulasi Simkhada had filed petitions against the Prime Minister and the President in the apex court. They had claimed that the step of the Prime Minister contradicted the Constitution and demanded reinstatement of the House.
Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana had forwarded the hearing of the writ petitions to the constitutional bench.
The SC had asked for a show cause notice to the offices of the President, Prime Minister and Speaker of the House of Representatives on the matter.
The three offices have already submitted their respective letters.
All eyes are now set on how the Supreme Court will interpret the constitutional provision, which will either legitimise or delegitimise the Prime Minister’s December 20 step.