KATHMANDU: Advocate Omprakash Aryal has filed a writ at the Supreme Court (SC) demanding an interim order to stay the appointment of persons recommended to various constitutional bodies by the meeting of the Constitutional Council (CC) on May 9.

Advocate Aryal has said in the writ that recommending appointees after issuing an ordinance related to Constitutional Council is against the constitution.

The President’s Office, the Prime Minister and his office, Constitutional Council Secretariat, and the Speaker have been named defendants in the writ.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, on May 4 had issued the ordinance related to the Constitutional Council (Work, Duties, Rights and Procedure) (First Amendment).

After the issuance of the ordinance, a meeting of the CC on May 8 had recommended 20 appointees to various constitutional bodies, including the Public Service Commission.

The constitutional provision mandates that Parliamentary Hearing Committee approve such recommendations forwarded by the CC within 45 days upon receiving it.

According to the writ petitioner Aryal, the President is preparing to make the appointments as the Parliament is currently dissolved and 45 days have passed since the recommendations were made. Aryal filed the writ to stop the appointments.

The writ has demanded repealing the Constitutional Council (Work, Duties, Rights and Procedure) Ordinance (First Amendment), 2021, stating it was unconstitutional of the President to issue the ordinance in the first place.

“As the issuance of the said ordinance is unconstitutional in the first place, a meeting of the Constitutional Council on May 9 recommended appointees to fill vacant posts in constitutional bodies based on the same ordinance deserve to be declared invalid,” the petition stated.