As the largest party, Saroj Kumar Yadav, the parliamentary party leader of the CPN-UML, was embroiled in controversy after he took the oath of office as Chief Minister at a hotel in Bardibas on the 24th.
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The hearing on the dispute over the appointment of the Chief Minister of Madhesh is ongoing in the Supreme Court. The petitioner side has completed its arguments in the bench of Justices Nahakul Subedi and Sunil Kumar Pokharel, while the opposition is presenting its arguments. The controversy arose after Saroj Kumar Yadav, the parliamentary party leader of the largest party, CPN-UML, took oath as the Chief Minister at a hotel in Bardibas on the 24th.
After the Chief Minister was appointed outside the Provincial Assembly, 74 MPs, excluding UML, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. The bench had allotted one and a half hours each in the bilateral debate held on Tuesday. Senior advocate Shambhu Thapa, Harihar Dahal, Sher Bahadur KC, advocate Dipendra Jha, Pankaj Karna, Sunil Ranjan Singh and others argued on behalf of the writ petitioner.
Three questions were raised during the debate. In the event that the Chief Minister resigns as per Article 168, Clause 2, whether the person with the majority as per Clause 3 can be appointed as the Chief Minister or not, should the process of appointing the Chief Minister and taking the oath be done in the Provincial Assembly or outside it, and the third question was when was the Chief Minister appointed on 23 or 24 Kartik? During the debate, most of the petitioner's legal practitioners stated that the appointment letter dated 23 was illegal. The provincial chief claimed that he had left for Kathmandu at 4 am on the 24th but had not been appointed the previous day as he had taken the oath on the way. Provincial Chief Sumitra Subedi Bhandari has filed a writ petition demanding that the decision to appoint UML MP Yadav as the Chief Minister be nullified.
The Supreme Court had ordered Yadav to submit all files related to his appointment as the Chief Minister on Kartik 23. 74 MPs other than the CPN-UML had approached the Supreme Court demanding that the decision to appoint Yadav as the Chief Minister be nullified. An interim order was also issued last Tuesday in this dispute.
The Supreme Court had also asked Yadav, who was appointed as the Chief Minister, not to make long-term decisions. Leaders including Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party Leader Krishna Prasad Yadav, JSP Nepal Parliamentary Party Leader Saroj Kumar Yadav, Maoist Centre Parliamentary Party Deputy Leader Yubaraj Bhattarai, and LOSPA Parliamentary Party Leader Jayalun Rai had approached the Supreme Court.
There are 107 MPs in Madhesh Province. 54 MPs is the majority number to form a government. UML has 25 members including the Speaker, Congress 22, JSP 19, Janmat 13, Maoist 9, LSP 9, CPN (S) 7, Federal Socialist Party, RPP and Nagarik Unmukti Party 1 each. Out of these, UML MP Dipendra Thakur, JSP MP Saroj Singh Kushwaha, LSP MP Abhiram Sharma are suspended. The current number of members in the Madhesh Provincial Assembly is 104
