KATHMANDU, Mar 7: Supreme Court (SC) has scrapped the interim order of staying the swearing-in of three National Assembly members of Federal Parliament recommended by KP Sharma Oli-led government.
Today's order paved the way for administering oath of office and secrecy to National Assembly members Yubraj Khatiwada, Ram Narayan Bidari and Bimala Paudel Rai.
The SC on February 25 directed the government and the Parliament to halt the scheduled swearing-in of the newly appointed three members of National Assembly.
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A single bench of Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut issued the interim order to halt the swearing-in ceremony and summoned the Office of the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers and the Secretariat of the Federal Parliament to attend the court on March 4, 2018 to discuss whether or not to extend the interlocutory order.
The Parliament Secretariat was scheduled to administer the oath of office and secrecy to national assembly members on the same day.
The bench was responding to a writ petition filed by Gopal Kumar Basnet, Krishna Prasad Paudel and Chadani Joshi who were nominated as upper house members by the erstwhile Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government.
On February 11, the caretaker government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba had recommended the names of writ petitioners but the President's Office sat on the recommendation saying that the government made the recommendation unilaterally without consulting other political parties.
The Oli government then withdrew the names and picked former Nepal Rastra Bank governor Yuba Raj Khatiwada, senior advocate Ram Narayan Bidari and Bimala Paudel-Rai instead. The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has accused President Bidya Devi Bhandari of siding with the current government.
