KATHMANDU, June 27:  Continuing with its short-term interim order issued four months ago, the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday ordered the government not to remove Chairman of the Press Council Nepal Bal Krishna Basnet from his post.

A joint bench of SC Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Hari Phunyal ordered the government not to proceed with the process of seeking clarification for the purpose of removing Chairman Basnet.

During the hearing on Sunday, advocates Ananta Raj Luintel, Bikas Bhattarai, Bishal Kumar Upadhyay and Pratibha Upreti had sought an interim order to thwart the government's preparations through an interim order as they tried to remove Basnet without a legal basis. 

The lawyers argued that the removal process should not proceed on the basis of biased explanations as Basnet was asked for clarification according to Article 6 (1) (a) of the Press Council Act, 2048 BS. Basnet was appointed to the post for a term of 4 years by the erstwhile KP Oli-led government.

Earlier, a single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC had issued a preliminary hearing on March 3 and issued a short-term interim order not to remove Basnet. Basnet had reached the SC by questioning the Council of Ministers for asking explanation in an apparent bid to oust him from the post.

 
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