Kathmandu, May 25

The Supreme Court today issued a show cause notice to the government for considering waiver of former lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel’s jail sentence.

Dhungel, who was convicted of murdering Ujjan Kumar Shrestha, a resident of Okhaldhunga, has been serving his jail sentence in Dillibazar Prison and has spent more than eight years in jail.

A single bench of Justice Deepak Kumar Karki issued the show cause notice to the defendants in response to a writ petition filed by Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi.

The apex court also called both parties to the case on Sunday to hear their arguments on whether or not the court should issue an interim order as demanded by the petitioner.

Tripathi had filed a petition at the apex court yesterday arguing that Dhungel did not qualify for waiver of jail sentence. If Dhungel’s remaining jail sentence was waived by the government and endorsed by the president, the former lawmaker of the erstwhile CPN-MC could walk out of jail on Republic Day.

Tripathi said the court took the case seriously, and therefore, scheduled another hearing after two days.