Nepal Parl dissolution: SC forwards petitions to Constitutional bench

Kathmandu, Dec 23: Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday forwarded all writ petitions challenging Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s move to abruptly dissolve the Parliament to a Constitutional bench, amid intensified struggle between the two warring factions of the Nepal Communist Party to wrest control of the ruling party.
Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana’s single bench passed the order after a preliminary hearing on the 12 different writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives, according to court sources.
The Constitutional bench will start the hearing on Friday. The bench is led by Chief Justice Rana and will have four other justices who will be picked by him.
During the preliminary hearings on Wednesday, senior lawyers citing Constitutional provisions argued that Prime Minister Oli has no right to dissolve the House so long as there is a possibility of forming an alternative government.
It was a coup against the Constitution itself, said senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi, one of the petitioners.
As per the Constitution, if the majority government is dissolved, there is a provision to form an alternative government by two or more political parties and a minority government could also be formed before going to the people for fresh mandate, he pointed out.
Prime Minister Oli cannot block the process of forming an alternative government by suddenly dissolving the House of Representatives, he said.
Although the petitioners demanded an interim order against Oli’s decision, the apex court refused to issue any such order.
Prachanda elected as new parliamentary leader
Meanwhile, executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led faction of the ruling party on Wednesday elected him as the new parliamentary leader, replacing Prime Minister Oli.
The 66-year-old leader’s nomination was proposed by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was on Tuesday named as one of the two chairmen of the party, at a parliamentary party meeting of the Prachanda-led faction at the Parliament Building in New Baneshwar.
Oli, 68, was removed from the post of party’s chairman on Tuesday by a central committee meeting of the Prachanda-led faction, which also decided to take disciplinary action against him for dissolving the House of Representatives “unconstitutionally”.
Both factions of the party have intensified efforts to retain official party recognition along with the election symbol.
The two factions are now busy making strategies to wrest control of the party. Leaders of the Prachanda-led faction have told the Election Commission that they have a two-thirds majority in the party and therefore they must be granted official recognition by the election body, My Republica reported.
Out of 446 central committee members, 313 were present at the meeting organized by Prachanda-led faction on Tuesday. Prachanda-led faction also enjoys a majority in the nine-member Secretariat, the highest decision-making body of the party. (PTI)