Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The former Himalayan Kingdom, currently known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, continues to witness unprecedented, roller-coaster-like political turbulence. On Monday, for the second time in five months, its Supreme Court reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives, and also directed President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba within two days, and convene the reinstated House on July 18.
This has come as a bolt from the blue for controversial Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is currently heading a minority government even after losing a trust vote in the House, media reports said.
A five-member Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, had concluded hearings in the case last week. On May 22, President Bhandari had dissolved the 275-member lower house for the second time in five months at Oli’s recommendation and announced snap elections on November 12 and November 19, 2021, giving him another six months in power.
Last week, the Election Commission had announced the schedule for mid-term elections despite the uncertainty over polls. As many as 30 petitions, including one by the opposition alliance led by the Nepali Congress, were filed against the dissolution of the House by the President.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis on December 20 last year after the President dissolved the House and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 at Oli’s recommendation, amidst a tussle for power within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
On February 23 also, the apex court reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives, in a setback to embattled Prime Minister Oli who was preparing for snap polls.
Reacting to SC’s decision CPN-UML spokesperson and former foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali said the order is unexpected and contrary to fundamental principles of the Constitution. He said it was “Wrong and unjustifiable but we will abide by it.”
This comes barely two months after PM Oli cobbled together a minority government despite losing a trust vote in the House.
President Bhandari had set aside a petition signed by 149 members of the Parliament, constituting a comfortable majority in the House, which had 271 members in favor of Deuba. A writ petition was filed by 146 members before the Supreme Court demanding that the “Constitutional wrong and malafide committed by the President be set right by reinstating the Parliament and appointing Deuba as the Prime Minister”.