Kathmandu, October 9

Chief of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Gopal Bahadur Khadka has resumed his duties from today after the Supreme Court on Sunday stayed the earlier decision of the government to sack Khadka from his post.

As per NOC officials, Khadka had reached the NOC’s central office based in Babarmahal at around 1:30pm today.

The Cabinet, on September 18, had sacked Khadka from his post for his involvement in financial irregularities while purchasing land plots to set up storage facilities across the country.

However, Khadka had filed a writ petition at SC on September 21 citing that his dismissal was illegal and that he was not given a chance for clarification by the government.

Meanwhile, responding to the writ filed by Khadka, a single bench of justice Purushottam Bhandari, on Sunday, had issued an interim order asking the government not to implement its decision to remove him from NOC’s top post.

Basically, Khadka has been charged with misappropriating huge amount of funds while purchasing land plots to develop petroleum infrastructure across the country.

Though different parliamentary committees have already proved NOC chief as guilty, lawmaker Subash Chandra Thakuri said that the inability of the government to seek clarification from Khadka might have provided enough ground for SC to reinstate Khadka at NOC.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is also probing this issue independently.