The Supreme Court has reinstated the parliament by overturning the decision of dissolution of the House of Representatives for the second time.
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari had dissolved the parliament on May 21 at midnight on the recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli. The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has taken the decision claiming it to be unconstitutional.
According to Sub-Article 3 of Article 76 of the Constitution of Nepal, the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) parliamentary party leader K P Sharma Oli was appointed as the Prime Minister who needed to ensure the vote of confidence within 30 days.
But, he stated that the situation in the parliament is the same in which he failed to receive the vote of confidence as per the sub-article 2 of article 76 and further recommended to the President to proceed further to form a government as per the sub-article 5 of Article 76.
President Bhandari, on May 20, asked the members of the House of Representatives to stake their claim to the new government with the basis for obtaining a vote of confidence for the appointment of the Prime Minister as per 76 (5)stating that the Prime Minister has paved the way.
Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML parliamentary party leader Oli had claimed within the time specified by the President.
Deuba had a claim with the support of 149 members of the House (61 Congress MPs, 49 from the UCPN (Maoist) Center, 26 from the UML’s Madhav Kumar Nepal faction, 12 from the People’s Socialist Party’s Upendra Yadav faction and 1 from the Rashtriya Janamorcha) while Oli said he had the support of UML and People’s Socialist Party.
President Bhandari had dismissed the claims made by both of them which was ruled as a wrong decision by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, President Bhandari had dissolved the House of Representatives on December 20, 2020, on the recommendation of the government which was reinstated by the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court on Febrauary 23, 2021.