KATHMANDU: As many as 131 conflict victims and members of their families have moved the Supreme Court on Monday, demanding that the government should not pay "disqualified" members of the erstwhile People's Liberation Army mobilised by the then CPN Maoist during the armed conflict.

They have demanded that the apex court issue an interim order barring the government from implementing the Point 19 of the annual budget statement for this year, which provisions that a disqualified PLA member gets Rs 200,000 relief from the government.

Likewise, they demanded that the Court issue a certiorari scrapping the provision to pay as many as 4,008 disqualified members of the rebel army.

The Parliament has already endorsed the Appropriation Bill, enabling the government to implement the announcement.

"It is clear that the government's decision to provide cash to persons holding a specific political belief, going against the Constitution and other existing laws, will misuse the tax paid by citizens and the state coffers," the petitioners argued, "It seems against the constitutional provision that the government withdraws the money from the state coffers and distributes it without legal authority."

The petition argued that those who initiated the armed conflict should not enjoy benefits in the name of conflict victims.

"How can the cadres of Maoist party, who initiated the conflict, can be defined as conflict victims," they questioned, "The Peace (and Reconstruction) Ministry had enlisted the Maoist cadres as conflict victims on the basis of their access."

"The justice practiced is not victim-centric, but victimiser-centric."

Likewise, the plaintiffs have claimed that the PLA members have already got the state benefits they deserved during the management of arms and armies under the supervision of United Nations Mission in Nepal.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Parliament Secretariat, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction are made defendants in the case.

The petitioners also include Nepali Congress leaders Kul Bahadur Gurung and Binaya Dhwaj Chand, among others.