Who decides vote of confidence, HoR or the President?, Senior advocate Thapa asks

KATHMANDU: Taking part in the debate on the hearing related to the dissolution of the House of Representatives, Senior Advocate Shambhu Thapa asked the court as to who decides on whether the Prime Minister can get a vote of confidence or not — the President, or the Federal parliament.

Debating in favor of the writ petition filed by 146 lawmakers including Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, then CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav and Rastriya Janamorcha’s Durga Poudel, advocate Thapa asked the Constitutional Bench to consider who the right authority to decide on the vote of confidence is.

He claimed that the President cannot decide whether one has a majority in the parliament or not without letting the Prime Minister ‘test’ in the House of Representatives.

“Which articles in the Constitution grant the President the right to decide whether the Prime Minister has the vote of confidence or not without letting him seek a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives?” senior advocate Thapa argued on Wednesday, adding, “Everyone should abide by the Constitution.”

He argued that the parliament has been dissolved to bring the budget through the ordinance.

Thapa remarked that unless the Prime Minister seeks a vote of confidence from the parliament and gets the vote for or against there, the President cannot be sure whether the PM has a vote of confidence or not.

“Who is the authority to decide how many votes the Prime Minister can get, the President, or the International Convention Center (ICC) Hall, i.e. the Federal Parliament?” he asked.

Replying to Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada’s query related to the basis for seeking the interim order in the writ, senior advocate Thapa cited Article 100 (3) and argued that Prime Minister KP Oli has become caretaker PM after failing to garner a vote of confidence from the parliament. Hence, Thapa said, he does not have the right to dissolve the parliament.

Thapa further added that an interim order should be issued as the caretaker Prime Minister dissolved the House of Representatives.