Article 76 (5) independent right of parliamentarians: Senior Advocates

Kathmandu: Hearing into the case of dissolution of House of Representatives (HoR) is underway at the Supreme Court on Thursday too.

On Thursday’s hearing, Senior Advocate Raman Shrestha claimed that the President should appoint Sher Bahadur Deuba to the post of the Prime Minister in line with the Article 76 (5) of the Constitution as Deuba has staked claim backed up with the signatures of 149 lawmakers.

He argued that not appointing Deuba to the post despite having clear majority of the lawmakers was a violation of the Constitution. Shrestha said that the signatures of the majority lawmakers were a clear evidence to appoint the PM as per the Article 76 (5).

He further argued that it was not only the matter of who becomes the Prime Minister but also it was an issue of the implementation or violation of the Constitution.

The Senior Advocate also said that the President should have appointed Deuba to the Post but the President did not do that and this was against the spirit of the constitution. Advocate Shrestha said that the lawmakers will not be abided by the party whip while exercising the Article 76 (5) adding that it was an independent right of the parliamentarians.

Similarly, senior advocate Harihar Dahal argued that there was no other strong evidence than the signatures of 149 lawmakers to be appointed the Prime Minister in line with Article 76 (5) of the constitution.

He also raised the question on the dissolution of the parliament overnight. He said that the President tried to save the post of KP Sharma Oli by dissolving the parliament overnight.