Constitutional bench to begin hearing on parliament dissolution writs

Kathmandu: The Constitutional bench is scheduled to start hearing writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) today.

Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana’s single bench on Wednesday had forwarded the case to the Constitutional bench after a preliminary hearing on the 13 different writ petitions.

The constitutional bench is led by Chief Justice Rana. The other justices in the bench are Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha and Tej Bahadur KC. Thirteen separate writ petitions were filed in the Apex Court challenging the dissolution of the HoR on December 20 by President on the recommendations of Prime Minister.

Advocate Prabesh KC on behalf of, outgoing members of the HoR Dev Prasad Gurung, Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Shashi Shrestha and Ram Kumari Jhakri had filed the writ petition.

Likewise, senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi and advocates Shalikram Sapkota, Gyanendra Raj Aaran, Samrit Kharel, Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Santosh Bhandari, Dipak Rai, Amita Gautam, Lokendra Bahadur KC, Kamal Bahadur Khatri, Maniram Upadhyay, Tulasi Simkhada and Achyut Prasad Kharel separately filed writ petitions against the HoR dissolution.

The writ petitions have demanded annulment of the HoR dissolution stating that outgoing lawmakers have been deprived of representing people in the HoR for full five years as a result of its dissolution.

-RSS