Celebration in Nepal after Supreme Court reinstates House of Representatives
Kathmandu [Nepal], February 23 (ANI): After the Supreme Court of Nepal on Tuesday reinstated the House of Representatives, the lower house of the country's Parliament, student leaders and cadres of Nepal Communist Party (NCP)'s rival faction chanted slogans hailing the verdict.
The students claimed it as a win for the people against a unilateral political system that crossed the line set by the constitution and marched towards autocracy and absoluteness.
"The demand of all Nepali citizens was to follow the constitution and the parliament be reinstated, we came out onto the streets for it and we succeeded today and are extremely happy. The Supreme Court has done justice, has ordered to reinstate parliament. This shows that Nepali Citizens would not tolerate any sort of unconstitutional coup," Meghnath Chapagain, a Kathmandu local told ANI.
A five-member Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR on Tuesday annulled the government's decision to dissolve the 275-member lower house of the parliament.
Along with the reinstatement order, the Apex Court also directed the government to summon House session within the next 13 days, an order which has opened the way forward to impeach or oust Oli from the post of Prime Minister
"This is a great victory for all those people who stood against this kind of an unconstitutional step and now the only option that is left for KP Oli is to resign from his incumbent post," NareshRegmi, a student leader from rival faction of ruling NCP told ANI.
On December 20 last year, President Bidya Devi Bhandari had dissolved parliament at recommendation of KP Sharma Oli. Oli had maintained that he was forced to dissolve parliament as he was not allowed to work properly by the leaders within his own party.
As many as 13 writ petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the move of Oli to dissolve parliament which was termed as a "constitutional coup" by critics and analysts. The constitutional bench led by Chief Justice along with Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, SapanaMalla and TejBahadur KC conducted a hearing on the case from January 17 to February 19.
"As we struggled hard for a new constitution, the responsibility to protect it was on our shoulders but the eccentric behaviour of some person tried to threaten it. The constitution which people brought in has again been returned back to Nepali citizens. It also shows that rule of law still exists in the nation and also shows the presence of a youth force in the nation to not let wrong things happen," Arti Lama, a student leader who stood on the forefront of protest against the dissolution of parliament celebrated the verdict as she took part in the celebratory gathering in capital Kathmandu.
Along with the verdict, the Supreme Court also scrapped all the appointments made by Oli to various constitutional bodies after the dissolution of parliament on December 20, last year.
Oli had made nearly four dozen appointments to various constitutional bodies by introducing an ordinance related to Constitutional Council after House Speaker Agni Sapkota and the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) President SherBahadurDeuba chose to abstain from the Constitutional Council meeting that is entrusted to make recommendations for appointments to the constitutional bodies as per the constitution.
Soon after the verdict of Apex Court, major opposition Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba tweeted that NC welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court.
Taking to Twitter, NC President Deuba said that the apex court has fulfilled its responsibility by revoking the unconstitutional decision taken by Oli.
"I had been telling that we should facilitate the Supreme Court to independently take decisions on the cases involving the dissolution of parliament. The apex court has taken a historic decision to reinstate parliament accordingly. Nepali Congress welcomes the decision taken by the apex court," he said.
President Deuba has reiterated that the Supreme Court is the ultimate authority to resolve the differences seen in the course of implementing the constitution.
"The Supreme Court has fulfilled its constitutional duty by revoking the decision to dissolve parliament," he said and added, "I want to thank the justices of the constitutional bench at the Supreme Court for this."
Likewise, a senior leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party's rival faction Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that the historic verdict of the Supreme Court has marked the victory of people.
Taking to social media an hour after the SC's verdict against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's House dissolution move, leader Nepal reiterated that the move was a regressive one. "I'd like to express my gratitude to the Supreme Court for issuing the historic verdict in favor of constitutional spirit and people's aspirations," he wrote.
He also thanked people and political parties that staged protests against the December 20-move. (ANI)
