23 February 2021, Kathmandu
In what can be billed as landmark verdict, the Supreme Court (SC) reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday.
A five-member Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana annulled the government’s decision to dissolve the HoR.
Likewise, the SC has also ordered the government to summon the House session within the next 13 days.
President Bidya Dev Bhandari had dissolved the House parliament at the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Oli on December 20, 2020.
A total of 13 writ petitions were registered at the SC seeking the reinstatement of the HoR.
The five-strong Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Rana ordered reinstatement of the HoR after two months of hearing.
“The statement issued by President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister on December 20 has been revoked in a way that it is constitutionally and legally void, and is unconstitutional since there is no constitutional condition of the Prime Minister of a majority formed in accordance to the Article 76(1) dissolving the Parliament as per Article 76(7), the verdict stated.
CJ Rana had on December 25 formed the Constitutional Bench comprising himself and Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Hari Krishna Karki, Anil Kumar Sinha and Tej Bahadur KC.
CJ Rana had replaced Karki with Sapana Pradhan Malla after the former, who was Attorney General during PM Oli’s first stint as prime minister five years ago, had recused himself from the case.
