KATHMANDU: Former Attorney General Agni Kharel has said that the court cannot issue an order in the name of the president to appoint the prime minister.

Debating on the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) in the Constitutional Bench on Thursday, Kharel insisted that the court should not issue an order to the President. “Technically, the court can only issue the order to the President’s Office,” he said.

Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana then asked former AG Kharel if he wanted to suggest that the President was free to act otherwise regardless of the court order issued to the President’s Office.

To this Kharel said since the President was the protector of the constitution he did not expect that the court would issue an order to the President.

Kharel was of the view that the court was only a referee in a game and the court could not appoint a prime minister.