KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court is to conduct hearing on July 7 into the case regarding the dispute over the torn ballot papers in Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Ward No 19 under the first phase of the local level elections as the required documents including the torn ballot papers have already reached the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Spokesman Mahendra Nath Upadhyay said the date for hearing into the case has been fixed for July 27 as all the related papers including the torn ballot papers have arrived at the apex court.

Along with the torn ballot papers, the affidavit of the halting of the vote counting, the notice of the Chief Election Office halting the vote counting and the report submitted to the Election Commission also have been presented before the court as per the Supreme Court order.

A joint bench of Acting Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli and justice Hari Krishna Karki had on June 20 ordered that the required documents related to the case be sent to the Supreme Court within a week.

The vote counting of the Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Ward No 19 was suspended after some ballot papers were torn while counting was underway on May 28 midnight.

Advocate Tulasi Pandey and  a candidate for ward member of Bharatpur Metropolis-19, Gunjaman BK, had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's decision to order a re-election at Bharatpur Metropolitan City-19 after the ballot papers were torn.

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