KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 21
The Supreme Court has refused to issue an interim order on the petition filed by CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli demanding that the party's decision to expel 14 lawmakers of the House of Representatives and two of Lumbini Provincial Assembly be considered valid.
A division bench of justices Deepak Kumar Karki and Kumar Chudal refused to issue an interim order as sought by Oli. The apex court, however, ordered to procure original documents from the Election Commission, federal Parliament Secretariat and Lumbini Provincial Assembly Secretariat related to the expulsion of UML lawmakers by the party.
On September 1, Sumitra Pandey had filed a writ petition at the SC on behalf of Oli, demanding that the registration of CPN (Unified Socialist), which was formed with the support of 14 UML lawmakers who had already been expelled by the UML for defying whips, be scrapped.
In the petition, the party had also questioned the role of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota for not confirming the expulsion of 14 UML lawmakers.
UML lawmakers have been obstructing the proceedings of the HoR over his alleged bias. They have been saying that while Sapkota confirmed the expulsion of four CPN-Maoist Centre lawmakers -- Ram Bahadur Thapa, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Prabhu Sah, and Gauri Shankar Chaudhary -- immediately after the party wrote to him informing its decision, he sat on the UML letter for 13 days and when the EC recognised the split in the UML, he issued a release saying there was no need to act on the UML letter.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 22 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
