Seventeen writ petitions filed by UML, Congress and Public Concern are awaiting a second hearing. The Supreme Court had earlier held the first hearing on the writ petitions and sought a show cause order and written response. The Supreme Court then ordered that all these writ petitions be heard together.
What you should know
There are 38 days left until the scheduled date for the election to the House of Representatives. The closed list for the proportional representation has been completed, while the parties are busy campaigning for the direct election. The Election Commission is also intensifying preparations and is busy with work from transporting materials to printing ballot papers. Similarly, the election code of conduct has also been implemented.
As the voting day approaches, the cases pending in the Supreme Court have also reached the stage (qualified for final hearing).
17 writs filed by CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and Public Concern are awaiting the second hearing. The Supreme Court had earlier held the first hearing on the writs and sought a show cause order and written response. The Supreme Court then ordered that all these writs be kept together for hearing. After that order, the writs were kept together. Even though all the writs were kept together, the date for hearing has not been fixed yet as the written responses of the respondents have not been received. Earlier, the general date was fixed for Poush 28, while the general date is Magh 13 (Tuesday). Premraj Silwal, one of the writ petitioners, said that the final hearing has now reached the stage as most of the respondents have submitted their written responses.
‘The written response to the writ petition filed with the Supreme Court for the restoration of Parliament has ended. The general date has been set for Tuesday,’ he said, ‘now the Supreme Court will fix the pleading.’ He claimed that it is not possible to say right now when the pleading will be fixed.
The Constitutional Bench has a practice of sitting on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is a practice to hear the interim order and final hearing cases on Wednesday and the first hearing cases on Friday. In this way, it seems that the Supreme Court can fix the pleading and hold regular hearings on Wednesday as well. But the Supreme Court does not seem to be in favor of disposing of the dissolution case right now. For the formation of a Constitutional Bench, there must be five judges including the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered that the pleading be fixed within seven days of the submission of written replies from all parties in the first hearing and the final hearing be held. In this way, it seems that the Supreme Court can fix the pleading after a week. If the hearing is scheduled after a week, it seems that a verdict can be reached before the election only if the hearing is continued.
17 writs are pending in the Supreme Court
17 writs related to the dissolution of the House of Representatives are pending in the Supreme Court. Initially, legal practitioners also filed a writ under public concern. Then, a writ was filed on behalf of the UML. For the third time, the writ was filed by the Chief Whip of the Congress. A supplementary writ was filed again, demanding that 57 Congress MPs, including MPs from other parties, be added to the writ. The delay is due to the order to hear all these writs together.
Last time, an order was issued to show cause and demand a written response in the writs of the UML and the Congress. Advocate Silwal said that the hearing is being postponed because all the opponents have not submitted written responses to those writs so far. Supreme Court spokesperson Arjun Prasad Koirala said that the bench had ordered all the parties to submit written responses and submit them for the final hearing immediately after submission, so only a general date was given instead of a date set. He clarified that the date for the final hearing will be set procedurally after the written responses of all are submitted.
Initially, on Kartik 12, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court had ordered the parties to submit written responses within seven days. The Supreme Court had initially given seven days and an additional seven days to submit written responses within 15 days. Although written responses were received in those writs, written responses began to arrive after the writ filed by the CPN-UML on Mangsir 17 and the writ filed by the Nepali Congress on Poush 2.
The Supreme Court had ordered the final hearing after the written responses of all the parties were registered. But since the written responses of all the parties have not been registered so far, the date for the final hearing has not been set.
The Constitutional Bench refused to issue an interim order immediately, but ordered the Attorney General's Office to submit a written response. The writ petition has made the President's Office and the Prime Minister's Office, among others, respondents. The bench has stated that the petitioner's demand can be considered only during the final hearing on the writ petition.
During the previous debate, the legal practitioners of the writ petitioner had argued that the interim government was formed against the constitution and the House of Representatives was dissolved. They had also demanded that an interim order be issued preventing the Sushila Karki-led government from doing anything other than preparing for the elections.
President Ram Chandra Poudel dissolved the House of Representatives on Bhadra 10 on the recommendation of the interim government. A writ petition was filed against that in the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi, Hari Prasad Phuyal and Manoj Kumar Sharma had conducted a preliminary hearing on the 17 writ petitions registered in this manner and only sought written responses.
