Kathmandu, June 2:

A writ petition has been filed at the Supreme Court today challenging the constitutionality of the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly and its decisions.

The petitioner and general secretary of Nepali Janata Dal, Bharat Raj Ojha, has said the CA convened its first meeting without having all its members sworn in.

The Interim Constitution, 2007, has provided three ways to elect 601 CA members — 240 members through first-past-the-post election, 335 through proportionate representation and 26 through nomination by the Council of Ministers — but the Constituent Assembly convened without nominating 26 CA members, violating the constitutional provision.

The petitioner has claimed said that the implementation of the republican agenda

by an incomplete Constituent Assembly is unconstitutional.

The second oldest Constituent Assembly member Kul Bahadur Gurung, who had chaired the May 28 first CA meeting, the Constituent Assembly, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his secretariat have been made defendants in the petition.

The petitioner has sought the apex court stay order to the defendants to stop implementing an unconstitutional declaration and has demanded a mandamus order with certiorari to scrap the decision to declare republic.

The petitioner has also demanded a stay order against electing a president and vice-president of the state without the appointment of 26 CA members by the council of ministers as stipulated by the Interim Constitution, 2007.

“The Interim Constitution was promulgated to bring the Maoists into the mainstream politics. This unconstitutional decision (to declare Nepal a republic) creates lawlessness rather than strengthening the rule of law,” the petitioner has said.