Kathmandu, June 11

The Supreme Court today deferred the hearing on the case filed against the Election Commission’s decision to hold re-election in Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, till Tuesday.

In the previous hearing the SC had told the EC to maintain the status quo on the case till another hearing.

The SC, which was supposed to conduct a hearing on the case today, could not do so due to lack of time, according to SC’s Co-spokesperson Bishwa Raj Paudel.

Chances of hearing  on the case was slim, as it was listed  after 18 cases in the cause list in the division  bench of Justices Bishowmbhar Prasad Shrestha and Prakash Man Singh Raut.

“The hearing on the case was deferred to Tuesday because of time constraint,” said Co-spokesperson Paudel. He said that as per the SC’s decision, the Election Commission would have to maintain the status quo on the case till the next hearing.

The writ was filed by the CPN-UML candidate for member of Bharatpur Metropolis 19 Gunjaman Bishwakarma and advocate Tulasi Pandey seeking resumption of vote counting.

In the first hearing on the case, Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana had issued an order to defendants to maintain the status quo on the EC’s decision till today.

Election officers had halted vote counting in Bharatpur Metropolis after 90 ballot papers were torn allegedly by CPN-Maoist Centre cadres on May 29.

Both the plaintiffs and the defendants were summoned to the Supreme Court to present their arguments on the case.

As per the election results declared thus far,   CPN-UML candidate for Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolis   Devi Prasad Gyawali is leading the race against CPN-Maoist Centre candidate Renu Dahal, the daughter of former  Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, by a few hundred votes.

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