Nepal's Oppn files writ petition against Prez's House dissolution

Kathmandu: Nepal's Opposition alliance on Monday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the "unconstitutional" dissolution of the House of Representatives by the President.

Leaders of the alliance moved the apex court two days after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House on the recommendations of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, who headed a minority government after losing a trust vote in the House.

In the writ, petitioners have demanded that Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba should be, lawfully, appointed the Prime Minister of Nepal in accordance with Article 76 (5), The Himalayan Times reported.

Their other demands include the scrapping of the announcement of elections in November, to stop election-related programmes amid the pandemic, and to issue an order to summon House meeting to facilitate presentation of the budget within the time provisioned by the Constitution, it said.

The petitioners noted that the dissolution was unconstitutional as there was legal room for the appointment of a new government as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Former lawmakers from the Opposition parties had assembled in Singha Durbar on Sunday and on Monday to submit their signatures endorsing Deuba's claim to the prime ministership.

Meanwhile, Nepal's ruling Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) on Monday expelled 11of its lawmakers for going against the party and supporting the Opposition alliance in its bid to topple the government led by embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli.

The Standing Committee of the CPN-UML decided to take action against the lawmakers, including former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, during a meeting held here on Monday.

The expelled lawmakers will not even remain general members of the party for siding with the opposition parties to oust the Oli government.