Kathmandu, Nepal, August 3, 2021: The Supreme Court (SC), the Apex Court of the country, has refused to reinstate four former lawmakers-Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Lekh Raj Bhatta, Prabhu Sah and Gauri Shankar Chaudhary, who were representing the CPN (Maoist Centre) before joining in the CPN UML, as member of the House of Representatives (HoR).
As single bench of SC Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada refused to issue an interim order on Monday, their HoR seats would not remain until the end of the ongoing tenure of the HoR. However, final hearing on the case will be held latter.
Challenging to the CPN Maoist Center’s disciplinary action to remove form the HoR seats, the four lawmakers had filed a petition at the SC on July 28 demanding reinstatement as member of the HoR.
As the four lawmakers had joined the CPN UML to be continued in the KP Sharma Oli government after the split in the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), the Maoist Center had taken disciplinary actions against the four lawmakers.
The bench has stated that the petitioners' argument that they were not given a chance to clarify was wrong. The Maoist Center had sent clarification letter to their offices but the petitioners did not respond to the explanation letters issued by the party, states the verdict.
As the petitioners had also claimed that they had not joined in the UML but still remain in the Maoist Center, the bench has also observed that they were named as UML members in the UML's internal party directives issued by Oli.
