Fourth day hearing on HoR dissolution kicks off

Kathmandu: The fourth day of hearing on a writ petition relating to the dissolution of House of Representatives (HoR) kicked off today. The writ petition was filed by 146 lawmakers including Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, demanding the restoration of HoR and Deuba’s appointment as the prime minister.

Pleading on behalf of leader Deuba, senior advocate Sabita Bhandari argued that dissolution of HoR was unconstitutional. Currently, advocate Dr Bhimarjun Acharya is pleading at the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.

The constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice Choldendra Shumsher JB Rana, and senior justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Bhattarai has been conducting the hearing regularly since last Wednesday.

Earlier, the advocates had argued that invoking Article 76 (5) by the President to form the government was against constitution. The writ petitioners and defendants have been allocated 15 hours each for the pleading.

Now, the lawyers advocating on behalf of writ petitioner have 4 hours 45 minutes left for pleading. Some 300 lawyers had registered their names for pleading.

For the amicus curie sought by the Supreme Court, Nepal Bar Association picked senior advocates Raghab Lal Vaidya and Usha Malla while SC Bar has selected senor advocates Komal Prakash Ghimire and Prakash Bahadur KC.

A total of 30 writ petitions were filed against the dissolution of HoR for the second time.