By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Sept. 23:  The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued an interim order to halt the enforcement of the decision to appoint Bamdev Gautam as the National Assembly member.

During the hearing of a writ petition filed by senior advocate, Dinesh Tripathi, stating that the decision to appoint Gautam as NA member was unconstitutional, the single-bench of Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai issued a stay order and directed not to delegate Gautam with any constitutional duty.

Stating that the hearing regarding the eligibility of the member of the federal parliament should be done from the constitutional bench, the apex court referred the case to the constitutional bench for hearing on September 30.

The SC said that after the implementation of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015, this case was the first of its kind which required a due constitutional interpretation. "To ensure the constitutional supremacy, a permanent solution must be sought on the basis of the principles of constitutionalism, answerability to the citizens, democratic procedure, good governance, constitutional policy, and constitutional morality," said the apex court in its interim order.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari had nominated Gautam as the NA member on Thursday, September 17.