KATHMANDU: The opposition party leaders have filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court (SC) against Prime Minister KP Oli’s move to dissolve the House of Representatives (HoR) today.

As many 146 lawmakers from five parties including Nepali Congress (NC) (61), CPN (Maoist Center) (49), Yadav-Bhattarai faction of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) (12), Nepal-Khanal faction of CPN-UML (23) and Rastriya Janamorcha (RJM) (1) have signed and jointly filed the writ at the apex court.

“As many as 146 lawmakers have jointly signed and filed the writ petition against the HoR dissolution today,” said NC lawmaker Ramesh Lekhak, adding, “This is more than 53 percent of the incumbent lawmakers represented in the parliament.”

This is the first time such a huge number of petitioners have registered the writ petition in person at the SC demanding the reinstatement of HoR and appointment of NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister.

Even though the Nepal-Khanal faction had earlier said it would furnish signatures of 27 lawmakers against the HoR dissolution, in the eleventh hour, four lawmakers – Yogesh Bhattarai, Gokarna Bista, Pabitra Niraula and Ganesh Pahadi did not sign the petition in favor of Deuba as the Prime Minister.

Talking to media after signing the petition, NC lawmaker Gagan Thapa said it is unfortunate to have such an autocratic, arrogant and anti-democratic Prime Minister which is why we have to knock the door of the Supreme Court time and again.

NC President Deuba, Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav and leader of the Nepal-Khanal faction Madhav Nepal among others were present at the SC today.

Earlier, the writ petition had been prepared on behalf of the 149 lawmakers to make NC President Deuba as the Prime Minister.

Lawyers including Govinda Bandi and Khamba Khati had prepared the draft of the writ petition.

Opposition parties have upped the ante against the HoR dissolution arguing that it is anti-democratic, unconstitutional and against the spirit of the Constitution.

President Bidya Bhandari had dissolved the parliament at the wee hours on Saturday  and announced mid-term elections for November 12 and November 19 on the recommendation of the cabinet.