The Supreme Court is hearing the election dispute in Dhanusha-1 on Sunday. The separate writ petitions filed by Kishori Sah of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) against the cancellation of her candidacy in Dhanusha-1 and the declaration of the winner of Matrika Yadav of the NCP are being heard together. 

The Election Commission had cancelled Sah's candidacy two days before the voting, saying that she was on the blacklist of the Credit Information Center. After that, Sah had gone to the Supreme Court. Due to lack of time, voting was conducted with Sah's election symbol on the ballot paper.

After the counting of votes, the Returning Officer's Office issued a certificate of victory to NCP candidate Matrika Yadav. Sah had also filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against that. If the hearing is not held for some reason, the Supreme Court will resolve the dispute on Sunday. 

A single bench of the Supreme Court issued an order on Thursday stating that Sah's name is not on the blacklist of the Credit Information Center. In such a situation, there is a concern whether the vote cast for Sah on 21 Falgun will be upheld or whether a re-election will be held or whether the certificate received by Matrika Yadav will remain valid. Although the votes cast for the bell election symbol in Dhanusha-1 have not been made public, 41,803 votes have been cast in proportional representation, while the second-placed NCP has 7,349 votes. 

According to legal experts, the Supreme Court may give one of three options in the Dhanusha-1 election dispute. The first option may be to uphold the cancellation of the candidacy made by the Election Commission. Legal experts say that the Supreme Court may rule that the cancellation of the candidacy is upheld since the Election Commission sought clarification from the candidate and made the decision based on the blacklist of the Credit Information Center. 

The Supreme Court has another option – to annul the cancellation of the candidacy and order the winner to be declared the one who gets the most votes. In such a situation, Sah may be declared the winner. After that, one seat for the RSVP will be added to the parliament, while the NCP's seat will be reduced. 

The third option may be to annul the cancellation of the candidacy but order a re-election. Legal experts say that since the Election Commission had rejected the candidacy of Sah of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before the vote, his vote was invalid, but since the decision of the commission is illegal, an order to hold a re-election may be issued. 

Senior advocate Purnaman Shakya argues that the court can hear the matter from that point since the Election Commission had decided to cancel the candidacy and Sah had filed a writ challenging it. The Returning Officer's Office has issued a certificate of election to NCP's Matrika Yadav, who got 10,430 votes in Dhanusha-1. It is estimated that around 32,000 votes were cast in Sah's favor. 

A complaint was filed alleging that Kamal Nirman Sewa Pvt. Ltd., owned by Sah, was blacklisted. After that, the Election Commission had asked Sah for an explanation on 11 Falgun. Then on 18 Falgun, the commission sent a letter declaring Sah ineligible to be a candidate. The commission had taken this decision based on the provision in Section 13(h) of the Election Act for Members of the House of Representatives, 2074 BS, which states that 'a person on the blacklist cannot be a candidate during that period'.

After Sah's candidacy was rejected, voting and counting took place in Dhanusha-1. During the counting, more votes were seen on the RSVP's election symbol. But the votes cast on the bell were not recorded. The dispute that started after that reached the Election Commission. On 22 Falgun, the commission instructed the Dhanusha election officer - if ballot papers with a seal on the bell are found, they should be counted but kept in a separate record, votes cast on the bell symbol should not be counted, and the votes of candidates other than Kishori Sah should be counted and the results published.