Petitioner seeks apex court order barring them from contesting polls
KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 13
A writ petition was filed today at the Supreme Court demanding that nomination papers filed by nine candidates, including Nepali Congress leader Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar and independent candidate Prabhu Sah, for the forthcoming parliamentary and provincial elections be cancelled.
Advocate Anil Acharya filed the public interest litigation against Nepali Congress candidate Gachhadar, Rastriya Prajatantra Party candidate Bikram Pandey, rebel NC candidate Govinda Raj Joshi, independent candidates Prabhu Sah and Sarita Giri, CPN-UML candidate Yuddha Bikram Tamang aka DB Tamang, UML candidate Laxmi Mahato, NC candidate Tek Bahadur Gurung, and CPN-Maoist Centre candidate Rewat Raj Puri aka Gagan.
Gachhadar is contesting parliamentary elections from Sunsari Constituency No 3, Bikram Pandey from Chitwan-2, Govinda Raj Joshi from Tanahun-1, Prabhu Sah from Rautahat-3, Sarita Giri from Siraha-1, Tek Bahadur Gurung from Manang, and Laxmi Mahato from Mahottari-1.
Puri and Tamang are contesting provincial assembly elections from Jhapa-5 (b) and Sindhupalchowk-1 (a), respectively.
The petitioner said Gachhadar, Gurung, and Joshi were facing corruption charges, Sah had been accused in Kashi Tiwari murder case, the government was in the process of appealing against the acquittal of Bikram Pandey in multi-million corruption case, Puri had been facing charges of illegally registering 30 bigha land in his name, and Mahato was an accused in ASI Thaman BK murder case.
The petitioner said these candidates should be barred from contesting parliamentary and provincial assembly elections as some of them had been convicted in criminal cases, while others were facing criminal charges in courts of law.
The petitioner argued that Sarita Giri was ineligible to contest elections as she had made anti-national remarks during the process of amending the constitution to include Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura in Nepal's map.
The petitioner said the spirit of the constitution, acts related to the House of Representatives, elections and provincial assemblies was to ensure that people with clean image, and not those indicted in corruption cases, should contest elections.
They have also sought repeal of articles 13 (c), 13 (d), and 13 (e) of the HoR Election Act as their intent was to even allow those punished for offences involving moral turpitude to contest elections. These provisions stipulate that in order for the candidate to be disqualified for elections, the court verdict in serious offences such as corruption, human trafficking, drug offences, rape, abduction, and murder should be final.
The HoR Election Act stipulates that persons convicted of organised crime cannot contest election for six years after serving their sentence. The petitioner has sought a stay order from the court against their candidacies. The petitioner has also named the Election Commission and the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Minister as defendants.
The preliminary hearing of the case has been scheduled for Sunday.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 14, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
