Lawyers against House dissolution complete arguments in Supreme Court

The lawyers who had been arguing against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari have completed their arguments in the Supreme Court today. The constitutional bench that had been continuously hearing the writ petitions filed against the House dissolution had been provided 12 hours to place their arguments.

A total of 36 advocates in favour of Nepali Congress Sher Bhadur Deuba placed their arguments in front of the constitutional bench of the court. All the advocates have mentioned that the president’s move to refuse the claim made by Deuba to form the government with the signatures of a majority of the lawmakers was unconstitutional.

Lawyers advocating for Deuba will be provided three more hours to place their arguments in response to the arguments made by the government side.

Lawyers from the government side will start placing their arguments in the Supreme Court from Monday. A total of 11 lawyers including Attorney General Ramesh Badal will be placing their arguments from the government side.

The writs are being heard by a constitutional bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Meera Khadka, and Anand Mohan Bhattarai.

The same constitutional bench had sought a written reply from the President’s Office and the Office of the Prime Minister on June 9. The Supreme Court had sought the response within seven days. Both President Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had submitted their responses on June 17.

The court had also sought amicus curiae from the Supreme Court Bar Association and Nepal Bar Association.

The Supreme Court Bar Association has recommended senior advocates Komal Prasad Ghimire and Prakash Bahadur KC as amicus curiae. Similarly, Nepal Bar Association has recommended the names of Senior Advocates Raghav Lal Baidya and Usha Mallla Pathak.

President Bhandari, on the recommendation of the government, had dissolved the House of Representatives and announced the dates for mid-term elections on May 22. She had cited that the claims made by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also chairperson of CPN UML, and Nepali Congress President Deuba to form the government as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal did not hold sufficient ground to confirm that they would win the vote of confidence in the Parliament.