KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Oli has sent a written response to the Supreme Court defending his decision to dissolve the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Oli in a written response to the Supreme Court (SC), has said that the Supreme Court cannot appoint a prime minister.
The SC had, last week, ordered the Prime Minister and the President’s Office seeking a written response from them within seven days asking as to why the House of Representatives had been dissolved.
In an 18-point written reply submitted by Prime Minister Oli to the Supreme Court on the seventh day on Thursday, he said the court cannot appoint a prime minister.
Opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has demanded to the SC to be appointed as the Prime Minister.
PM Oli has said that the court is to interpret the constitution and the law, and that it cannot play the role of legislature or executive.
“Appointing a prime minister is a very political and executive process. Article 76 of the constitution does not give the right to appoint the prime minister to anyone except the president,” PM Oli has claimed in his response to the SC.
Prime Minister Oli has also stated that it was ineffective to continue the House of Representatives in a politically adverse situation.
Pointing out that the reinstated House of Representatives failed to achieve any political outcome, PM Oli insisted that the House of Representatives should not be given continuity.
Stating that the constitution does not envisage the practice of non-partisanship, Prime Minister Oli said that convening the parliament and the government as claimed by the petitioner would be like reviving the Panchayat system.
In his response, PM Oli has said that a member of the House of Representatives (HoR) cannot extend the support to any member belonging to the opposition party as the Constitution does not envision a party-less system.
Stating that lawmakers cannot go against party discipline, PM Oli said that a lawmaker elected on the basis of a party’s policy, principles, ideology, and manifesto cannot be independent to support the leader from another party to form a new government.
“An order has been issued stating that there is a constitutional provision to dissolve the House of Representatives as per the Article 76 (7) of the Constitution if there was no option of appointing another member of the House of Representatives as the Prime Minister or the appointed Prime Minister could not get the vote of confidence,” reads the written response.
The response mentioned that the HoR was dissolved after the failure to form an alternative government by using all options of Article 76 as mentioned in the Supreme Court order and the dissolution of the HoR was natural and constitutional.
Prime Minister Oli submitted the written response after the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had on June 9 issued an order in the name of the government to submit within a week a written response regarding HoR dissolution.
The Supreme Court had asked the Prime Minister and the President’s Office to furnish a written response within seven days as to why the government dissolved the House.
Prime Minister Oli sent a response through the Office of the Attorney General on Thursday on the seventh day of the SC’s order.
Earlier, the Constitutional Bench of the SC had issued a show-cause order in the name of the opposition.
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