KATHMANDU, Feb 15: The Supreme Court (SC) is conducting a hearing today on the writ petitions filed against the appointment of 52 office bearers of constitutional bodies during the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli government.

When Oli was the Prime Minister, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court saying that names were recommended for the appointment of constitutional officials by holding a meeting of the Constitutional Council based on a controversial ordinance.

After repeated hearings in this case were deferred, the Supreme Court on July 27, 2022 ordered to make arrangements so that the hearing will not be deferred any further and the case will not be adjourned. The final hearing of the case has been set for today.

When the intra-party rift was raging in the erstwhile CPN, the then Prime Minister Oli held a meeting of the Constitutional Council on December 15, 2020  in which Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota and then leader of the main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) Sher Bahadur Deuba did not participate.

And on the same day, the Oli government issued an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council (Work, Duties, Rights and Procedures) by providing that the decision can be taken by the majority of the permanent members in the Constitutional Council.

Since there was no Deputy Speaker at that time, there were only five members in the Constitutional Council. Based on this, only the then Chairman of the Council and Prime Minister Oli, Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana and National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina attended the meeting and recommended appointment to the constitutional commissions. The recommendation was sent to the Parliament Secretariat on December 20, 2020 for a parliamentary hearing. On the same day, then Prime Minister Oli dissolved the House of Representatives.

The petitioner claimed that the appointments made by bringing an ordinance are unconstitutional so that decisions can be made by the majority of the Constitutional Council. Earlier, there was a controversy that Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher could not sit in the hearing because he was involved in the decision.

One side had filed a writ claiming that Cholendra Shumsher should not sit and the other side had filed a writ claiming that the constitutional bench could not sit without the Chief Justice. After the hearing of the same writ, the constitutional bench itself was affected.

But with the suspension of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher due to impeachment, the writ petition is about to be heard. Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki along with justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and a constitutional bench comprising Dr Anand Mohan Bhattarai is said to hear the case.

 
• Supreme_Court
 
• Oli_government
 
• appointment_of_52_office_bearers_of_constitutional_bodies