19 January 2021, Kathmandu
The Supreme Court (SC) will continue hearing writs filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday as well.
Justices Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Sapana Pradhan Malla and Tej Bahadur KC headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR are in the Constitutional Bench.
The hearing on writs filed against dissolution of HoR is likely to be protracted as only six out of 188 advocates have debated till Monday.
Exactly one month after the dissolution, only six lawyers representing petitioners have taken part in the debate at Constitutional Bench of the apex court.
A total of 188 legal practitioners have filed their advocacy letters on behalf of the petitioners.
The court was preoccupied with deciding whether to hear these petitions in the Constitutional Bench or Extended Full Bench till January 13.
After the court settled the confusion and decided to continue the hearing at the Constitutional Bench, six advocates on the petitioner’s side have taken part in the debate in two days.
In this way, the hearing of all legal practitioners who have filed their names for advocacy is likely to take more than one month from now.
After them, 11 lawyers, including the Attorney General and other private lawyers will defend the government decision.
About a dozen private lawyers have filed their names for advocacy from government side.
After the turn of the advocates of the both sides, five-member amicus curie will come out with its opinion.
Everything remaining the same, it seems, it will take the whole month of February for the verdict on the case.
However, some practitioners who have registered the names may not take part in the advocacy and sometimes many lawyers might debate in a single day.
So far, Dr. Bhimarjun Acharya, Sunil Pokharel, petitioner Santosh Bhandari, Badri Raj Bhatta and Dr. Din Mani Pokharel and Saroj Krishna Ghimire have taken part in the debate from the petitioners’ side. Among these, first four debated on Sunday remaining two today.
Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and comprising Justices Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Sapana Malla Pradhan and Tej Bahadur KC is holding continuous hearings on the issue.
Earlier on Friday, the apex court had rejected the petition seeking hearing of the case in the Extended Full Bench and ordered a continuous hearing in the Constitutional Bench.
The advocates taking part in the hearing on behalf of the writ petitioners had demanded that the decision on the case should be taken by the Extended Full Bench.
On behalf of the petitioners, former attorney general and advocates Raman Shrestha, Shambhu Thapa, Harihar Dahal, Dinesh Tripathi, and Chandra Kanta Gyawali had sought that the case should be decided by the Extended Full Bench arguing that it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Bench.
On the contrary, Attorney General Agni Kharel and advocate Sushil Kumar Pant had reiterated that the issue need not be taken to other benches and has to be settled by the constitutional bench.
