KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court on issued show cause notice and summoned the government, Ministry for Youth and Sports and Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority in a case filed by National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista.

Reacting to the writ petition filed by Bista following the anti-graft body’s recommendation to take action against him, the single bench of Justice Kalyan Shrestha issued the order and also asked Bista to continue his regular duties.

“We have not received the full text of the order but the Supreme Court has ordered the defendants to come to court for discussion about interim order on the case as sought by the plaintiff,” said Advocate Ramesh Badal.

Along with Badal, Shambhu Thapa, Sushil Panta, Tikaram Bhattarai and Harihar Dahal defended the case from Bista’s side.

The NSC chief had moved the apex court on October 5 following the CIAA’s instruction to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to take action against Bista, who was accused of helping Nepali players flee in South Korea during the last year’s 17th Asian Games.

Bista was the team manager of Sepak Takraw in the Incheon Asiad and one of his players, Aman Pode stayed back in South Korea.

The CIAA had also urged the government to take action against Minister for Youth and Sports Purushottam Paudel for appointing Bista as the Member Secretary of the NSC.

Paudel resigned from the post after the then Prime Minister Sushil Koirala urged CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli to recall the minister. The CIAA had on September 11 ordered the government to take action against Paudel, who was accused of abusing his authority while appointing Bista.

CIAA had argued that Bista was banned from all sports-related activities for a year since October 19, last year for his alleged involvement in helping some Nepali players flee in South Korea during the 17th Asian Games.

“The Ministry sought clarification from us following the CIAA’s instructions. We submitted our explanation to the ministry and also decided to move the court against such baseless accusations from the CIAA,” said Rohit Dahal, the NSC's press advisor.

(This version replaces the RSS report that erroneously wrote that the Supreme Court issued an interim order in the case.)