KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Advocate Om Prakash Aryal has said that President Bidya Devi Bhandari should withdraw the government's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives.

Participating in the hearing on the case against the dissolution of parliament at the Supreme Court on Thursday, Aryal said that President Bhandari should withdraw the government's decision to dissolve parliament, citing earlier instances when decisions made by the heads of state were overturned later.  

Aryal, who is one of the petitioners, said that President Bhandari could also retract  the notice issued by the President's Office while making an announcement on the dissolution of the House of Representatives elected by the people. "This way, she also can reinstate parliament," he argued.

Aryal said that Speaker of the House of Representatives, Agni Sapkota and parliamentarians can also resume parliament by exercising powers granted by the constitution if President Bhandari does not overturn the government's decision to dissolve parliament. The Speaker and parliamentarians can make an announcement on the resumption of parliament by using the right to self-defense, he argued.

"The notice that was issued on the announcement of the dissolution of parliament is available only on the official website of the President's Office but has not been published in the national gazette as of today. In the past, all such notices used to be published in the gazette," he claimed.

Aryal said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had dissolved parliament by going against the constitution. "The constitution has not given any prerogative to the prime minister to dissolve parliament. At the same time, he [prime minister] did not pay attention to the principle of separation of powers," he said.

Hearings have been held at the apex court’s five-member Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR on 13 writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the 275-member House of Representatives by President Bhandari at the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli. Today is the sixth day of the hearing. 

The apex court formed a five-member Constitutional Bench under CJ Rana. The other members of the bench are justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Tej Bahadur KC, Anil Kumar Sinha and Sapana Pradan Malla.

The Supreme Court on Jan 15 ordered that the hearing on the writ petitions filed against the dissolution of the House of Representative (HoR) would be conducted by the constitutional bench itself despite the call of the petitioners to take the case to the full bench.

Stating that parliament dissolution is a serious case of judicial interpretation, the apex court ruled that the hearing on the writ petitions against parliament dissolution would be made by the five-member constitutional bench. The apex court made this decision after two continuous hearings conducted on Jan 14 and 15.

 
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