Hearing on cases concerning the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) in the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court was postponed on Monday owing to the health problem of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana.
Devendra Dhakal, information officer at the SC, said, “The Chief Justice did not report to work on Monday due to his illness, thus the hearing on HoR dissolution was been postponed.”
As Article 137 (1) of the Constitution has provisioned that the constitutional bench should consist of Chief Justice and four SC judges designated by him, the hearing could not proceed in Rana’s absence.
On Sunday, Chief Justice Rana had appointed Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Meera Khadka, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, and Dr. Aananda Mohan Bhattarai alongside him on a seniority basis. The hearing was adjourned on Sunday due to time constraints.
A total of 30 writ petitions relating to HoR dissolution have been filed at the Top Court after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House on May 22 and announced the mid-term election on November 12 and 19.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi has filed a writ petition in the Apex Court demanding revocation of the cabinet reshuffle done by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
In his writ petition, Tripathi has regarded Prime Minister Oli’s move to reshuffle the cabinet as unconstitutional.
Stating that Prime Minister Oli’s government had turned into a ‘caretaker’ status post-dissolution of HoR and announcement of the mid-term election by the President, advocate Tripathi in his writ petition has argued that Oli doesn’t hold any executive power to reshuffle or expand the cabinet.
The petition has also demanded to issue an interim order preventing the newly appointed ministers from executing their ministerial duties until the final verdict of the case. “In my petition, I have argued that as the incumbent Prime Minister is just a caretaker for now. He cannot make any policy-based decisions having a long-term impact and his scope of work must be limited within carrying out day-to-day works of the government,” said petitioner Tripathi.
Hearing on the petition is taking place on June 8 remotely via video conferencing, he added.
On June 4, Prime Minister Oli had inducted eight ministers and two state ministers from Mahanta Thakur-led faction Janata Samajwadi Party- Nepal and had retained only four ministers from the old cabinet.
Source : THE RISING NEPAL,
