KATHMANDU: The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) will continue hearing writs filed against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Thursday.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the participating lawyers argued that the current constitution doesn’t have a provision for the dissolution of Parliament.
Advocates debated on behalf of the writ petitioner in today’s hearing. They alleged that Prime Minister KP Oli had dissolved the House to save his post, adding that there was no alternative to reinstating it.
On Wednesday, Senior advocate Chandra Kant Gyawali first advocated the writs on behalf of the writ petitioners in the hearing.
The bench has fixed 30 minutes for Gyawali to debate.
Earlier, the bench had not fixed the time. However, after the same advocates took a long time, the Justices had asked advocates to take care of the time, without specifying the duration.
“We have set a time limit from today. You have half an hour to advocated on the writs. Start the debate,” said Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana before Gyawali started debating.
However, it is not disclosed whether the same duration is applicable to all advocates.
More than a dozen writ petitions have been registered at the apex court against House dissolution by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli on December 20.
A total of 188 legal practitioners have filed their advocacy letters on behalf of the petitioners.
The court was preoccupied with deciding whether to hear these petitions in the Constitutional Bench or Extended Full Bench till January 13.
After the court settled the confusion and decided to continue the hearing at the Constitutional Bench, six advocates on the petitioner’s side have taken part in the debate in two days.
In this way, the hearing of all legal practitioners who have filed their names for advocacy is likely to take more than one month from now.
After them, 11 lawyers, including the Attorney General and other private lawyers will defend the government decision.
About a dozen private lawyers have filed their names for advocacy from the government side.
After the turn of the advocates of both sides, a five-member amicus curie will come out with its opinion.
Everything remaining the same, it seems, it will take the whole month of February for the verdict on the case.
However, some practitioners who have registered the names may not take part in the advocacy and sometimes many lawyers might debate in a single day.
Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and comprising Justices Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Sapana Malla Pradhan, and Tej Bahadur KC is holding continuous hearings on the issue.
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