KATHMANDU, July 26: The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Election Commission (EC) to not immediately implement its decision to deny the Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra party, Nepal the election symbol of cow.

A division bench of Justices Dr Anandamohan Bhattarai and Dr Kumar Chudal issued an interim order not to provide the Cow as the election symbol to any of the political parties and also not implement EC's prior decision.

"As the election symbol was also linked to the political party's identity, don’t give this election symbol demanded by the petitioner to any other political party until the petition is finalized even by considering the loss that could occur on the petitioner," the SC's verdict stated. 

The verdict also asks not to implement the EC's decision of July 11 for now while ordering the EC to furnish its written response within seven days.  

The EC had earlier rejected the request to provide cows as the election symbol to a political party citing Nepal's national animal and its link to the Hindu religion. Challenging the EC's decision, Thapa had filed a writ petition at the SC.

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