Kathmandu: Nepal’s Maoist-led government was on Wednesday dragged to the Supreme Court for committing contempt by seeking a three month extension to Constituent Assembly’s term despite the apex court’s order against it.
At least three writ petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against government’s proposal to extend the Constituent Assembly (CA) term, which expires on May 27.
Attorney Bal Krishna Neupane and social activist Bharat Jangam have filed a writ against the government’s proposal, asking the the Supreme Court to issue Interim Order against it. They argued that the further extension of the CA term would be against the November 26 verdict of the Supreme Court hence the proposal registered in the House commits the contempt of court. Two other separate writs have been registered in the Apex Court against Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai-led government’s move.
In November last year the Supreme Court had given its ruling saying that the CA term could not be extended beyond May 27.
The move by the government seeking to extend the CA term comes as the fourth extension of the CA term expires on May 27 without possibly promulgating the Constitution. Senior leaders of the two major coalition partners, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, have opposed the move and demanded resignation from Prime Minister Bhattarai. They have demanded promulgation of the Constitution by May 23 by forging understanding among the major political parties on the contentious issues including forms of governance and federal structure.
Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal charged that the CPN-Maoist was hatching a conspiracy against other coalition partners, and have asked Prime Minister to resign to pave the way for another national consensus government under Nepali Congress as per the five-point agreement the major parties had signed last month.
Rejecting the government’s move to seek another three- month extension to the Constituent Assembly’s term, he said none of the two main opposition parties — the Nepali Congress or the CPN-UML — were consulted before making such an important move.
Meanwhile, a CA member belonging to Nepali Congress Radheshyam Adhikari on Wednesday resigned from the CA membership to protest against the government’s decision to extend its term beyond May 27.
However, the official decision of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML regarding the government’s move is not clear. Both the NC and CPN-UML are holding their high level meeting to make their official stand clear in the matter.
CPN-UML warned Prachanda against turning into another ‘Hitler’ or ‘Idi Amin’ and clinging to power at any cost.
Nepal warned Prachanda against dragging the country towards catastrophe by undermining national integrity.
“As the Maoists have been responsible for polluting the environment of trust, now it is their job to take steps to clean the tarnished image of the past and to build trust so that the constitution drafting process could be moved forward,” he said.
Nepal’s statements came a day after the Nepali cabinet sought another extension to the CA to complete the drafting of the constitution, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has clearly ruled against further extending the May 27 deadline. (PTI)