The apex court will conduct hearings on the petitions that also challenge the president´s order on removing constitutional hurdles on November 21. The present technocratic government was formed solely to hold the CA election scheduled for November 19. [break]
According to SC Spokesperson Shrikant Poudel, the court, which was scheduled to conduct hearings on the petitions on Thursday, could not conduct hearing on the petitions because of absence of justices Tarka Raj Bhatta and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki. The apex court could not form a special bench to conduct hearing in absence of the justices. Poudel said justices Bhatta and Karki are currently out of the country.
The apex court on September 19 had conducted first hearing on the writ petitions, six months after the appointment of Regmi as the chairman of the Interim Election Council and the second hearing on October 1.
Commenting on the SC´s decision to conduct hearings after the polls, General Secretary of Nepal Bar Association (NBA) Sunil Pokhrel said the apex court wants to evade the issue. Asked about relevance of hearings after November 19, Pokhrel said, “It [deferral of hearings] is intended to make the issue meaningless. This would also pave the way for SC to quash the writ petitions.”
Regmi was appointed as chairman of the Interim Election Council on March 14, following President Ram Baran Yadav´s orders on removing constitutional hurdles.
The seven writ petitions were filed separately by advocates Gyawali, Om Prakash Aryal, Kanchan Krishna Neupane and Gopal Shiwakoti on March 14, Subhas Acharya on March 17, Chairman of Lok Kalyankari Janata Party Kishori Mahato on March 21, Amar KC of Nepal Rastriya Loktantrik Dal on April 3 and advocate Bharat Mani Jangam on May 28.
The president´s office, chairman of the Interim Election Council, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala, Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal and Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic Chairman Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, among others, have been named as defendants in the writ petitions.
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