NEW DELHI, Dec 25: The dissolution of Nepal Parliament has gone to the court with Nepal Supreme Court asking the both the prime minister’s and the president’s offices to submit written clarifications on the K P Sharma Oli government’s decision to abruptly dissolve Parliament two years ahead of the schedule.
A five-judge constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Friday issued the show cause notice after preliminary hearing a bunch of 13 petitions challenging the government’s decision to dissolve the 275-member House of Representatives of Nepal on Sunday. Although the petitioners demanded an interim order against the decision, the apex court has refused to issue any such order.
The five-member bench comprises justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Tej Bahadur KC, Anil Kumar Sinha and Hari Krishna Karki sought the written clarification from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Minister and Office of the President as they are made defendants in all the writ petitions, media reports in Nepal said.
The court has also asked the government to furnish an original copy of the recommendations made by the government to dissolve the House and the decision made by President Bidya Devi Bhandari to authenticate the government’s recommendations. On Wednesday, Chief Justice Rana’s single bench had forwarded all writ petitions to the Constitutional bench.
Nepal has plunged into a political crisis over the dissolution of Parliament leading to a split in the ruling Communist Party of Nepal with two main rivals, the prime minister and the president of the party K P Sharma Oli and the former prime minister and NCP executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’to wrest control of the party.
Amid an intensified struggle between the two warring factions of the ruling party, Oli, currently holding the office of the interim government pending two-phase general elections on April 30 and May 10, is all set to reshuffle his ministry after seven ministers close to Prachanda resigned from the cabinet. Oli’s cabinet now has 18 members including cabinet ranked and ministers of state.
China, which was interfering into the internal affairs of Nepal ruling party through its ambassador in Kathmandu in a bid prevent a split in the party, is learnt to have resumed its efforts after the dissolution of Parliament. The Chinese ambassador Hou Yanqi on Thursday met ‘Prachanda’, who claims control over the ruling party after removing Oli from the posts of the party’s parliamentary leader and chair.
In a meeting of the Central Committee members close to him on Thursday, Oli announced the removal of Prachanda from the post of the party’s Executive Chairman while the Prachanda-led faction of the ruling party elected him as the new parliamentary leader replacing Oli.
On Sunday, President Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives and announced dates for mid-term elections at the recommendation of the Oli cabinet, sparking protests from a section of the ruling party and various opposition parties, including Nepali Congress.
The ruling party has now been virtually divided more than two years after it was formed following the merger of CPN-UML led by 68-year-old Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre led by 66-year-old Prachanda in May 2018.
Both factions of the party have intensified efforts to retain official party recognition along with the election symbol. The two factions are now busy making strategies to wrest control of the party before the elections.
Prachanda, however, said his first priority would be to try to restore the dissolved House of Representatives and form a new government. “I will unify all the democratic forces and political parties to keep the hard-won political system and parliament lively and functioning,” he said.
The Prachanda-led faction has also told the Election Commission (EC) that they hold a two-thirds majority in the party and therefore they must be granted official recognition by the election body. “We are here with the proof that we are the only legitimate Nepal Communist Party,” Leela Mani Pokharel, a standing committee member of the party, said.
(Manas Dasgupta)