KATHMANDU:  The Supreme Court (SC) is scheduled to hear the writ petition filed against Speaker Agni Sapkota and the Election Commission (EC) arguing that the registration of the CPN (Unified Socialist) is illegal.

A single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana is hearing the writ today. The hearing on the writ had been postponed for today after Justice Meera Khadka, who was assigned to hear it, failed to do so citing lack of time on Friday.

Oli in the writ petition has claimed that although he sent a letter to the Parliament Secretariat seeking action against 14 lawmakers on August 17, including Unified Socialist Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal, the Speaker did not register it in the Parliament Secretariat.

The decision taken by the Speaker to register a new party without taking any action is against the law, argues the writ petition.

UML has demanded that an interim order be issued to overturn the speaker’s decision.  The EC and the Speaker have been mentioned as defendants in the writ petition.