The Supreme Court has issued an interim order today asking the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli not to implement the decision to reshuffle the Council of Ministers. Along with this order, 20 ministers in PM Oli’s Cabinet have lost their positions.
A joint bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana issued the interim order asking PM Oli not to implement the decision to reshuffle the government.
Senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi and advocates Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Raj Kumar Suwal, Shalikram Sapkota, Sita Devi Adhikari and Birendra Prasad Shah had filed a writ at the apex court on June 7 seeking an annulment of the recent reshuffle of the Cabinet citing that since the present government is a caretaker government it did not have the authority to do so. They had mentioned that reshuffling the Council of Ministers by a caretaker government was unconstitutional.
Senior advocate Tripathi had stated that since the House has been dissolved and dates for mid-term elections announced PM Oli is no more a parliamentarian. He had added that as per the constitution once a person is no longer a parliamentarian then their position is considered null and void, thus the Oli government is a caretaker government.
PM Oli had reshuffled the Council of Ministers on June 4 by including 10 ministers from the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal and two from CPN UML.
The Supreme Court, on June 8, had sought written response from the government regarding the reshuffling of the Council of Ministers.
A single bench of Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada had sought a written reply from the Office of President and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on why the need arose for the government to reshuffle the Council of Ministers.
The Supreme Court had called both parties today to hold discussions on an interim order regarding the case.
