KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court is set to announce its long-awaited verdict today on writ petitions challenging the appointment of 52 officials to various constitutional bodies, including the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
The constitutional bench of the apex court, which had concluded final hearings on May 15, had initially scheduled the verdict for June 11. However, despite daylong deliberations by Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Manoj Kumar Sharma, Kumar Chudal, and Nahakul Subedi, no decision was issued on that day.
The same bench has now fixed today as the new date to deliver the verdict.
The appointments in question were made in two rounds during 2020 and 2021 under the administration of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Using ordinances, the Oli-led government appointed 52 individuals to constitutional commissions, a move that critics argued was unconstitutional and lacked broad consensus.
Petitions challenging the appointments were filed by senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi, advocate Om Prakash Aryal, and others, citing procedural and constitutional violations.
At the time, the Constitutional Council—which recommends appointments to constitutional bodies—convened with only three members present: Prime Minister Oli, then Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, and National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota and opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba were notably absent from the meeting.
Comment