Kathmandu, January 15
The Supreme Court has decided to continue the hearing of writ petitions filed against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s decision to dissolve the House of Representatives in the constitutional bench on Sunday next week.
The five-member constitutional bench of the court led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana had heard the 13 writ petitions filed against the decision on Friday. This is the fourth time that the court heard the petitions.
The bench rejected an application submitted by the petitioners to forward the debate to the full bench.
Today also, the hearing was focused on whether to continue the hearing on the same constitutional bench or to forward it to a full bench. Earlier, those advocating on behalf of the petitioners had demanded that the court form an extended full bench to hear the cases considering its seriousness and national importance.
On the first day of the hearing on December 25, the court had issued a show cause notice to the defendants including PM Oli and President Bidya Devi Bhandari. They have already submitted their responses to the court.
Because a member of the bench Justice Hari Krishna Karki last week had decided to rescue himself from hearing the cases after being accused of involving a conflict of interest, CJ Rana had appointed Sapana Pradhan Malla to replace him on Wednesday.
