SC scraps Oli-Dahal’s ruling NCP, upholds Rishi Kattel's plea that the party name belongs to him (with full verdict)

KATHMANDU, March 7: In what appears to be a severe blow to both factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), the Supreme Court (SC) has scrapped the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) registered in the name of KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, giving the party to little-known Rishi Kattel who had registered Nepal Communist Party at the Election Commission much before the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was registered in the names of Oli and Dahal in May 2018.

Issuing a verdict on Sunday, a joint bench of justices Kumar Regmi and Bam Kumar Shrestha ruled that the Nepal Comunist Party belonged to Kattel who had filed a writ petition claiming the name of the party.

The verdict of the Supreme Court comes at  a time when both factions of the ruling party -- one led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the other by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal -- knocked on the Election Commission (EC) door claiming the legitimacy of the party.

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Following the merger between the erstwhile CPN-UML and Maoist (Center), Kattel, on Dec 7, 2018, filed a writ petition at the supreme court claiming the name of the party. 

Kattel knocked on the apex court’s door claiming that the election law and other laws do not allow the existence of two parties with the same name. 

 The Election Commission, on October 26, 2018 had formally registered the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), rejecting Rishi Kattel’s plea that the name clashed with the name of his own party.  

Kattel, who heads the Nepal Communist Party, had moved the EC demanding that the ruling communist party change its name as another party with a similar name already in existence.