Supreme Court upholds appointments of 52 officials in constitutional bodies

Kathmandu, July 3: The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered to scrap of the writ petitions filed against the appointments of 52 officials in the constitutional bodies.

With the SC verdict last night, the office-bearers of the constitutional bodies would now serve their full six-year tenure. Hearing of the writ petitions was conducted in the constitutional bench of Chief Justice Prakashman Singh Raut, Senior Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla and Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma, Dr Kumar Chudal and Dr Nahakul Subedi.

The decision on the appointments of the constitutional bodies was taken on a majority basis as Senior Justice Malla, and Justices Sharma and Dr Chudal shared their position to quash the writs. CJ Raut and Justice Dr Subedi viewed scrapping the writ petitions from the certiorari order since the constitutional council’s recommendation was made on December 15, 2020, and the appointments thereafter were against the constitution.

The writ petitions against the appointments made on May 9, 2021 deemed scrap. The SC announced its verdict on the appointments of 52 officials in the constitutional bodies after a long discussion. In the midnight from the bench, Chief Justice Raut shared about the dissenting opinions of the justices on the verdict. After the verdict, SC Spokesperson Achyut Kuinkel shared that majority of the justices in the constitutional bench decided to scrap of the writ petitions.

A total of 15 writ petitions were lodged at the SC challenging the government decision to appoint office-bearers in the constitutional bodies through ordinances. The hearing of the case at the SC was completed on May 15. The SC was supposed to give its verdict on June 11 but again the date was fixed for July 2 (Wednesday).