KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court is set to deliver its final verdict on the long-standing dispute concerning the appointment of 52 office bearers to various constitutional bodies during the tenure of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
The verdict will be announced on June 11 by the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, decided on the date after concluding the final hearing on Thursday.
The bench has also ordered that all argument notes related to the case be submitted by May 30.
The hearing had been underway in the Constitutional Bench composed of Chief Justice Raut and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Manoj Kumar Sharma, Kumar Chundal, and Nahakul Subedi since February 12.
The dispute centers on the appointments made after the Oli-led government issued an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council (Works, Duties and Powers) on December 15, 2020.
The ordinance allowed appointments to be made by a majority decision of the Council, even in the absence of a parliamentary hearing. Subsequently, 52 individuals, including the chairman of the Public Service Commission and the CIAA chief Prem Kumar Rai, were appointed to various constitutional bodies.
Following the dissolution of the House of Representatives, a writ petition was filed at the Supreme Court by advocate Om Prakash Aryal, arguing that the appointments were unconstitutional and bypassed the required parliamentary hearing process.
The matter has been under legal scrutiny for several years, with former Chief Justices Cholendra Shumsher Jabra, Harikrishna Karki, and Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha presiding over the case at different times. With Chief Justice Raut now heading the Constitutional Bench, the long-pending case is finally set to reach a conclusion.
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