Supreme Court (SC) Spokesman Shreekant Poudel told Republica that the hearings were put off as Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala and Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) chief Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, who are among those named as defendants in the petitions, are yet to furnish their written clarifications before the court. [break]
Poudel stated that hearings on the writ petitions may now be possible only from August 19 or 20 as the both Koirala and Gachchhadar have till then to furnish clarifications.
However, Advocate Om Prakash Aryal said they were informed by Joint Registrar at the SC Nahakul Subedi that the hearings were postponed as Justice Ram Kumar Prasad Shah was indisposed.
Though the apex court was scheduled to conduct hearings on 24 writ petitions from August 1 onwards, a special bench of Acting Chief Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma and Justices Shah, Kalyan Shrestha, Girish Chandra Lal, Sushila Karki, Prakash Wasti, Baidya Nath Upadhyaya, Tarka Raj Bhatta, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and Bharat Bahadur Karki on July 4 had ordered hearings on seven of the petitions, which are related to the presidential order and were filed since March 14.
Regmi was appointed chairman of the Interim Election Council on March 14 following President Ram Baran Yadav´s orders on removing constitutional hurdles. The other 17 writ petitions were filed before the formation of the Interim Election Council.
The seven writ petitions have been filed separately by Advocates Chandra Kant Gyawali, Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Gopal Shiwakoti, Subhas Acharya, Bharat Mani Jangam, Chairman of Lok Kalyankari Janata Party Kishori Mahato, and Amar KC of Nepal Rastriya Loktantrik Dal.
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