KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has quashed the recent cabinet reformation undertaken by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli after the second dissolution of the parliament.
A division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana on Tuesday issued an interim order revoking the cabinet expansion. With the order, as many as 20 ministers of the current cabinet have been relieved of their posts.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday had invited both sides for a hearing.
The interim order cites article 77 (3) of the constitution, which states that if the post of the Prime Minister becomes vacant, the same Council of Ministers will operate until another Council of Ministers is formed.
Minister of Finance Bishnu Poudel, Physical Infrastructure Minister Basanta Kumar Nembang, Minister of Education Krishna Gopal Shrestha, and Minister of Law Lila Nath Shrestha, who were ministers before the House dissolution in the Oli-led cabinet, will remain as ministers.
The petitioners had earlier claimed that the government formed under Article 76(3) of the Constitution of Nepal having a caretaker status cannot reshuffle the cabinet.
After the second dissolution of the parliament on May 22, PM Oli on June 4 reformed the cabinet by removing one deputy prime minister, nine ministers and three state ministers, and appointing 10 ministers and two state ministers, including the deputy prime minister. He had made Rajendra Mahato of Janata Samajwadi Party and Raghubir Mahaseth of the UML the Deputy Prime Ministers and also promoted Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel.
On June 10, he gave full shape to the Council of Ministers by adding seven ministers and one state minister.
With Tuesday’s SC verdict, the ministers who were sworn in on June 4 have been relieved after taking charge for 19 days, while the ministers who were sworn in on June 10 have been relieved of their responsibilities in 13 days.
Those who took oath on June 4 were Rajendra Mahato, Sharat Singh Bhandari, Anil Kumar Jha, Laxmanlal Karna, Bimal Prasad Srivastava, Umashankar Aragaria, Chanda Chaudhary, Ekwal Mia, Chandrakant Chaudhary, Renuka Gurung Raghuveer Mahaseth, and Sher Bahadur Tamang.
Likewise, ministers who sworn in on June 10 were Rajkishore Yadav, Nanakala Thapa, Jwalakumari Sah, Naradamuni Rana, Mohan Baniya, Ashakumari BK, Khagraj Adhikari and Ganesh Pahadi.
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