KATHMANDU, Jan 4: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to give continuity to its earlier stay order against the sacking of three board members of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
A division bench of Chief Justice Sushila Karki and Justice Jagadish Sharma stated that there is no need to give continuity to the previous order to stay their sacking.
3 NEA board members prevent MD from setting up subsidiaries
The Ministry of Energy on December 15 had sacked NEA board members Suraj Lamichhane, Manoj Mishra and Laxman Agrawal after a ministerial decision arguing that their clarifications were not satisfactory and they were involved in activities against the national interest. The ministry had asked them to furnish clarifications over their alleged opposition to a number of proposals tabled at the NEA board by NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghishing as well as sending the notes of dissent written at NEA board meeting to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
Sacking the trio, the government had appointed Bhakta Bahadur Pun of Purtikanda, Rukum, Chetraj Joshi of Martadi, Bajura, and Umesh Prasad Thani of Birendranagar, Surkhet as members of the NEA board.
Following the sacking, Lamichane had moved the apex court challenging the ministerial decision to sack them. A single bench of SC Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut on December 28 had stayed the decision and issued show-cause notice to the ministry and Minister Janardan Sharma.
