SC’s Constitutional bench for continuous hearing, demand for full bench – Justice Karki recuses

KATHMANDU:

UPDATE:

Kathmandu: Justice Hari Krishna Karki has withdrawn himself from the Constitutional Bench, hearing no fewer than 13 writs against the House dissolution.

“Justice Karki has decided not to be part of the Constitutional Bench that is hearing the writs against dissolution of the House of Representatives,” Kishor Poudel, at the Supreme Court, informed journalists. “The chief justice will replace him with another justice.”

The case against the dissolution of the House of Representatives will be heard in the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court from today. A preliminary hearing has been held in the Constitutional Court on the writ petition filed by Dev Gurung, Chief Whip of the CPN Parliamentary party, calling the dissolution of the House of Representatives unconstitutional.

As per the court order, the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker have already submitted their written responses. It has been informed that continuous hearing shall be held from today. Judges Harikrishna Karki, Vishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha and Tej Bahadur KC are members of the Constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Jabara.

Meanwhile, the writ petitioners have demanded that the case against the dissolution of the House of Representatives be moved from the Constitutional Court to the full session of the Supreme Court. Writ petitioner senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi said that this petition will be filed in today’s session.