House nominates lawmakers to preside over meeting

The meeting of the Lower House today nominated seven members to preside over the HoR meeting if the Speaker and Deputy Speaker cannot be present at the HoR, as per Rule 10 (1) of the HoR Regulations, 2075.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota announced the name of the nominated HoR members — Dila Sangraula Panta, Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, Radha Kumari Gyawali, Rekha Sharma, Renu Kumari Yadav, Lal Babu Pandit and Som Prasad Pandey.

In the meeting, Speaker Sapkota apprised the lawmakers of relieving elected HoR member of Samajbadi Party-Nepal, Sarita Giri, from her responsibility as per Article 89 of the Constitution of Nepal, on July 9, 2020, acting on the letter received from the Parliament Party Chief Whip of her party, on July 8, 2020, to remove her as per the Act related to political parties 2073, Section 32 and Sub-section 5. The Party said HoR member Giri had disobeyed the directive issued by the party.

Moreover, the House Speaker apprised the lawmakers of filling the vacant post after the demise of HoR member Gyan Kumari Chhantyal with Subarna Juwachand on July 14, 2020; dismissed lawmaker Sarita Giri’s post with Lila Devi Sitaula on July 27, 2020; and filling the vacant post after the demise of Surya Bahadur KC with Mohan Prasad Pandey on November 19, 2020. Further, the speaker welcomed the appointed HoR members who have already been sworn in after receiving a letter from the Election Commission that they were elected through a proportional representation system.

The speaker also passed a condolence proposal on the demise of Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a member of the erstwhile Constituent Assembly. Former State Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Yadav of CPN-UML elected from Banke District Constituency No 2, passed away on January 14, 2021, at the age of 75.

The HoR members mourned the demise of Yadav for one minute. Speaker Sapkota then called for another meeting at 1:00 pm on Friday.

A meeting of the HoR Business Advisory Committee was also held on Monday for the operation of the House business.

Today’s HoR meeting was the third after the Supreme Court reinstated the Lower House on February 23 and issued an order to summon the seventh session of the Lower House.

Previously, the meeting was convened on March 7 and 10.

The president, on December 20 had dissolved the HoR on the recommendation of the government while the Supreme Court reinstated the Lower House after hearing the writs challenging the dissolution of the HoR.