Kathmandu, July 27
Elected members of the National Council of Nepal Scout from Koshi Province have issued a joint press statement calling the government’s dissolution of Nepal Scout’s National, Provincial, and Local Councils illegal and against due process.
The statement comes after Nepal Scout’s official Facebook page announced on the night of Shrawan 8 that the Prime Minister, as Patron of Nepal Scout, along with the Minister for Education and Sports, as Chief Scout, had dissolved all elected councils and executive committees of the organisation.
The signatories say the councils were formed through elections held in Magh 2080 B.S. after a 12-year gap, under a process overseen by an Election Committee formed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. They note that observers from the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) monitored the polls and found them free, fair, and democratic.
According to the statement, the four-year term of the National Council members, elected on Magh 27, 2080 B.S., is protected under the Nepal Scout Act 2050 and its accompanying Regulations, making their removal before the end of their tenure unlawful. The members also argue that neither the Prime Minister nor the Education Minister has legal authority under the Act to dissolve elected bodies, and that only the respective appointing authorities—provincial ministers and local mayors or chairs—can act on Provincial and Local Committees.
The statement further claims that the formation of an “Interim National Executive Committee,” reported to have been sworn in on Shrawan 8, violates a Supreme Court mandamus order issued in the case Lok Bahadur Bhandari v. Ministry of Youth and Sports (Writ No. 078-WO-0484), which had barred the formation of ad-hoc committees within Nepal Scout.
Calling the move an obstruction to a youth development movement spread across all 753 local units and seven provinces, the signatories have urged the Prime Minister and the Education Minister to withdraw the decision immediately. They have also appealed to provincial chief ministers, social development ministers, and local mayors and deputy mayors to intervene, warning that Scouters nationwide will launch protest programs if the decision is not reversed.
The statement is signed by National Council members Nawal Prasad Upadhyay, Nirmala Adhikari Bhandari, Kiran Giri, Durga Bahadur Bista, and Ravi Khanal.
