7 February 2021, Kathmandu
The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday is scheduled to hear a writ petition filed by Speaker Agni Sapkota alleging that the appointment to constitutional bodies is unconstitutional.
Sapkota has submitted the petition to the SC on Friday naming Prime Minister KP Oli, Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana, and National Assembly (NA) Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, as defendants.
Other defendants include officials who had attended the Constitutional Council (CC) meeting that recommended the officials for the appointment.
It should be noted that Speaker Sapkota had boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the officials held on Wednesday calling it “unconstitutional”.
Speaker Sapkota had claimed that he had moved the court to defend the constitution.
“No appointment can be made without a parliamentary hearing. Since the constitution says that a parliamentary hearing should be held, it is unconstitutional for the appointments to be made without a hearing as per the rules, contrary to Article 292 of the constitution. After a series of violations of the constitution, I have gone to the Supreme Court, which has the constitutional right to interpret the constitution and the law in defense of the constitution,” Speaker Sapkota had said at a press conference.
It should be noted that the apex court had issued a show-cause notice in the name of defendants in a similar writ.
Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi had filed a writ petition arguing that the recommendation made for appointment to various constitutional bodies was unconstitutional.
A single bench of Justice Kumar Regmi on Friday had issued the show-cause notice while conducting a preliminary hearing on the writ.
