Court's order historic, far-sighted in favour of constitution, democracy: Nidhi

Nepali Congress Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi has welcomed the verdict delivered by the Supreme Court to reinstate the House of Representatives.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the Council of Ministers on May 22 had dissolved the HoR.

NC Vice-president Nidhi wrote on Twitter, " I welcome the order issued by the court to appoint Sher Bahadur Deuba as the prime Minister and reinstate the HoR. The Supreme Court has given a historic and far-sighted verdict in favour of the constitution and parliamentary democracy. This decision has enhanced the people's trust and respect for the Supreme Court.

The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court that had been hearing the writ petitions filed by the opposition alliance including Nepali Congress, CPN Maoist Centre, Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, faction of CPN UML lead by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal against the dissolution of the HoR.

Before issuing the verdict, Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana had mentioned that the decision to issue the verdict had been taken unanimously by all the five members of the constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice Rana and Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Meera Khadka and Anand Mohan Bhattarai.

The constitutional bench has also ordered for the House of Representatives to be reinstated and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba be appointed as the prime minister of the country as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.

The Supreme Court has stated that Deuba needs to be appointed as prime minister by 5 pm on Tuesday. This basically means that President Bhandari has to appoint Deuba as prime minister within 28 hours of the verdict being issued.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also stated that Prime Minister Oli’s claim to form the government was also invalid as he had failed to fulfil the process initiated as per Article 76 (4) of the constitution.

Meanwhile, supporters of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli have staged protests against the apex court's order to reinstate the Lower House.  CPN UML's youth leader Mahesh Basnet who was present at the protest has said that the decision made by the Supreme Court regarding the appointment of a new prime minister will not be followed.