KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued show cause notices regarding the order of President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, overriding the cabinet decision of sacking Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangud Katawal.

A single bench of Justice Bala Ram KC sought explanations from the secretariat of the President, Council of Ministers and the Army Headquarters as to why the apex court intervention was not required in this case.

The bench told the authorities to submit their written explanations within 10 days, putting the case in the priority list for final hearing.

The bench also observed that there was a need to interpret several provisions of the Interim Constitution regarding the rights and duties of the President, as raised in the petition. However, such a constitutionality test will be done while settling the case after the final hearing.

During today's hearing, advocates Ram Krishna Subedi, Shreekrishna Subedi, Dhruba Prasad Chaulagain, Ram Narayan Bidari, Rabindra Bhattarai, Raman Kumar Shrestha, Tulsi Bhatta and Prakash Mani Sharma pleaded on behalf of the petitioners.

Representing INHURED International, an NGO, a PIL was filed at the SC challenging the President's move to reinstate the CoAS.

PM Prachanda resigned yesterday referring to the 'unconstitutional' move of the President to reinstate the army chief going against the decision of the elected government.

The petitioners had challenged the President's decision stating that the ceremonial head of the state does not have such an executive authority to ignore the government's decision.

"The President does not have power to act without the recommendation of the executive," they said. The petitioners also asked the apex court to scrap the decision of the government.