KATHMANDU, Aug 21: The Supreme Court (SC) has removed Maheshwor Bhakta Shrestha as executive chairman of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), ruling that the government’s appointment did not comply with the law.
A division bench of Justices Sunil Kumar Pokharel and Balkrishna Dhakal issued the ruling on Thursday while deciding a writ petition filed by Upendra Bahadur Karki.
The SC found that Shrestha’s appointment as executive chairman and general manager breached the government’s prescribed procedure for appointing heads of public bodies. However, it rejected Karki’s separate claim that he should be appointed to the post.
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The dispute largely centered on Shrestha’s age. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation’s 2017 standards require executive chiefs of public bodies to be between 30 and 65 years old.
Karki had challenged Shrestha’s appointment, arguing that he had already crossed the 65-year age limit and had been brought back to the corporation 34 years after his retirement.
The ruling means Shrestha must step down as executive chairman, and the government will have to begin a fresh process to fill the position. He will continue as a member of Nepal Airlines’ board.
This is not the first time the SC has overturned Shrestha’s appointment. He was among five people appointed to the NAC board by the government on April 13 whose appointments were later scrapped by the Court.
Karki had challenged those appointments as well, and the SC subsequently ruled in his favor, cancelling the appointments of all five board members.
