KATHMANDU: Leaders of the opposition alliance have reached the Supreme Court with a writ petition raising three basic questions related to the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday.
According to sources, the opposition alliance comprising main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-Maoist Center, Upendra Yadav faction of Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), Rastriya Janamorcha and ruling CPN-UML’s Nepal Khanal faction have raised concern at the motive of the Prime Minister KP Oli and President Bidya Devi Bhandari.
The alliance has alleged that the President had called for the formation of a new government in accordance with Article 76 (5) of the Constitution, yet despite the opposition party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba’s claim that he has the support of 149 lawmakers, without verifying his claim, President Bhandari dismissed the HoR.
They argued that the opposition party’s claim of having the support of 149 lawmakers to make NC President Deuba a new Prime Minister shows that the parliament can give alternative to incumbent government if required, so dismissal of the HoR and declaration of snap polls does not make sense.
The writ petitioners have demanded the mandamus to facilitate the appointment of NC leader Deuba as the Prime Minister as he meets the criteria as per Article 76 (5).
Similarly, It has also been argued that the Prime Minister appointed under Article 76 (2) who failed to garner a vote of confidence in the parliament as per 76 (4) was again appointed Prime Minister under 76 (3) but did not dare to face the parliament. Therefore, he can not claim for the post of Prime Minister under Article 76 (5) of the Constitution.
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