KATHMANDU, JUNE 22
The Supreme Court today issued an interim order asking Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to relieve 20 ministers, appointed after, dissolution of House of Representatives, of their duties.
A division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana issued the order in the name of the caretaker government to release the newly appointed ministers from their appointments.
Consequential to the decision, Prime Minister Oli will be left with only four ministers that he had continued with, while letting go of many others including his trusted aides, during the initial phase of the reshuffling.
The court's decisions came in response to several writ petitions that were filed earlier this month, challenging Oli's move to induct new ministers in the caretaker government.
The plaintiffs and defendants had both been summoned by the the apex court today for the case proceedings.
The petitioners had, while filing the writ, demanded that an interim order be issued to the Oli-government citing that a caretaker Prime Minister does not hold the authority to take decisions with lasting impacts such as making changes to the cabinet.
A single bench of Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada had then issued a show cause notice to the government seeking clarification on its decision to reshuffle the cabinet within 15 days, on May 29.
In the past few days, several other decisions taken by the Oli government have been reversed by the Supreme Court.
