KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 22

A writ petition was filed at the Supreme Court today demanding that Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota and Deputy Speaker Pushpa Bhusal be removed from their posts as their tenure expired on September 17, a day before parties submitted their proportional representation lists for the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 20.

Advocates Kishor Paudel, Jagannath Dulal, Anupam Bhattarai, and others filed the writ petition against the speaker and deputy speaker invoking Article 91 (6) (a) of the constitution.

This article stipulates that the office of the speaker or deputy speaker of the House of Representatives shall fall vacant in case he or she ceases to be a member of the House.

However, in the event of dissolution of the HoR, the speaker and the deputy speaker shall continue in office until the day before the filing of nominations for another election to the HoR.

Petitioners have named the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs and the Federal Parliament Secretariat as defendants.

The petitioners have urged the court to stop pay, perks, and services being provided to the speaker and deputy speaker until the case is settled.

The petitioners have argued that the speaker and the deputy speaker can hold office only until a day before the filing of nominations for the parliamentary elections.

The first hearing of the case has been scheduled for tomorrow.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 23, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.