Constitutional bench restructured to hear writs against House dissolution

The Supreme Court has restructured the constitutional bench that was formed to hear the writ petitions against the dissolution of the House of Representatives (HoR) by the president.

The constitutional bench now comprises of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Meera Khadka, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Bhattarai.

The hearing on the writs against the dissolution of the House of Representatives will take place today.

The constitutional bench formed earlier to hear the writs comprised of Chief Justice Rana and Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur Karki and Bam Kumar Shrestha. However, there were objections raised regarding the composition of the constitutional bench. It was later agreed upon that the constitutional bench would be formed based on seniority.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, on the recommendation of the government, had dissolved the House of Representatives and announced the dates for mid-term elections on May 22. She had cited that the claims made by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also chairperson of CPN UML, and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to form the government as per Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal did not hold sufficient ground to confirm that they would win the vote of confidence in the Parliament.