Of the 30 writs filed at the apex court, initially only 11 of them had sought a hearing through a constitutional bench and 19 through the general bench. However, a single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana while hearing the 19 such writs on Thursday decided to assign them too to the constitutional bench.
Meanwhile, 146 lawmakers of the now-dissolved House of Representatives have also filed a writ at the Supreme Court stating that the president’s rejection of Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba’s claim to form the government even when he had the majority and dissolving the House was unconstitutional.
The constitutional bench formed to hear the writs today will be headed by Chief Justice Rana. The other Justices in the bench include Deepak Kumar Karki, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur Karki and Bam Kumar Shrestha.
President Bidhya Devi 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.
