Kathmandu, February 6:

The Supreme Court today issued an order to the government authorities to attend a hearing on February 16 to decide whether or not to issue a stay order against the government decision to expand benches of the apex court.

A singe bench of Justice Mohan Prakash Sitaula issued the order, following today’s hearing on a case against the government plan. The bench directed the Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Constituent Assembly Affairs and the Ministry of Finance to attend the hearing.

The bench also gave a 15-day time frame to the authorities to submit their written explanation on why the government decided to expand the benches of the apex court. The bench also put the case on priority list for quick hearing because of the serious nature of the case.

The bench issued the order after a copy of the budget speech was produced before it for the examination. On February 1, Justice Gauri Dhakal had directed the government authorities to submit a copy of the budget speech that proposed expansion of the apex court benches to Biratnagar and Nepalgunj.

Through the budget speech for the fiscal year 2008/09, the government proposed to set up benches of apex court in Biratnagar and Nepalgunj to ensure people’s easy access to justice.

Challenging the government decision, a group of advocates, including Madhav Kumar Basnet, had filed a public interest litigation, demanding that the decision be scrapped. The petitioners claimed that the benches of the Supreme Court cannot be expanded through the budget speech as it was against the independence of the judiciary to expand the benches through an administrative order.