Kathmandu, April 25:

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the two-year-old declaration of the House of Representatives to strip king of all powers, bring the Nepal Army under the purview of the parliament and declare the country a secular state.

A three-member bench of justices Anup Raj Sharma, Ram Prasad Shrestha and Gauri Dhakal issued the verdict on two separate petitions that had challenged the parliamentary declaration

and quashed the petitions.

After its revival following the 19-day movement, the House had passed the declaration curbing the powers of the king and declared the supremacy of the parliament on May 18, 2006. The declaration had stripped all the powers of the king and had overruled the then Constitution.

Stating that the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 repealed the 1990 Constitution, the bench stated that there was no need to pass an order as demanded by the petitioners.

Advocates Achyut Prasad Kharel and Amita Shrestha had filed separate writ petitions challenging the House declaration.

They had claimed that the declaration was against the then Constitution.

The petitioners had claimed that any state organ couldn’t declare itself a sovereign body and demanded SC intervention to scrap the declaration.