Highlights:
- The bench ordered Sher Bahadur Deuba to be appointed Prime Minister by Tuesday.
- Thirty petitions were submitted against dissolution of the House by the President, including one by the opposition alliance led by the Nepali Congress.
- Sher Bahadur Deuba, 74, has held the position of Prime Minister four times.
Nepal’s Supreme Court issued a major judgment on Monday, ordering President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister by Tuesday, and reinstating the House of Representatives for the second time in five months.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s decision to dissolve the lower house on Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s recommendation was declared unconstitutional by a five-member Supreme Court Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, dealing a major setback to the veteran Communist leader who was preparing for snap polls.
The bench ordered Sher Bahadur Deuba to be appointed Prime Minister by Tuesday.
Sher Bahadur Deuba, 74, has held the position of Prime Minister four times.
The court also ordered a fresh House of Representatives session to begin on July 18 at 5 p.m.
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According to Chief Justice Rana, the bench has determined that the party whip does not apply when MPs vote to elect a new Prime Minister under Article 76(5) of the Constitution.
Hearings in the case were completed last week by a bench consisting of four other senior-most justices: Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, and Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai.
On the proposal of Prime Minister Oli, President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the 275-member lower house for the second time in five months on May 22 and called snap elections for November 12 and November 19.
Despite the uncertainties surrounding polls, the Election Commission set the calendar for mid-term elections last week.
Thirty petitions were submitted against dissolution of the House by the President, including one by the opposition alliance led by the Nepali Congress.
The Opposition parties’ alliance filed a petition with the signatures of 146 parliamentarians requesting the reinstatement of the lower chamber of Parliament and Deuba’s nomination as prime minister.
On December 20 of last year, President Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives and ordered fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 on Prime Minister Oli’s advice, following a power struggle within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
The top court reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives on February 23, dealing a blow to embattled Prime Minister Oli’s plans for fast elections.
Oli, who leads a minority government after losing a House trust vote, has justified his decision to disband the House of Representatives, claiming that some of his party’s leaders were attempting to form a “parallel government.”
