SC issue interim order to dismiss 20 ministers

Photo Courtesy: Official Website of the Supreme Court

Kathmandu: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order not to implement the last cabinet expansion made by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Nine people, including senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi, had filed a writ petition against the caretaker government on June 4, saying that the caretaker government would not have the right to expand the cabinet.

Hearing the same writ today, a bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana issued an interim order not to immediately implement the decision to expand the cabinet.

On the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli on June 4 and 10, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari said that the additional appointment of Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers and Ministers of State was not in line with the constitution but against the spirit and letter of the constitution.

Along with the Supreme Court’s order, Deputy Prime Ministers Raghuveer Mahaseth and Rajendra Mahato and Ministers Khagaraj Adhikari, Sarat Singh Bhandari, Anil Kumar Jha, Sher Bahadur Tamang, Rajkishor Yadav, Laxman Lal Karna, Nainakala Thapa, Jwalakumari Sah, Bimal Prasad Srivastava, Umashankar Aragaria, Chanda Chaudhary, Ekbal Mia, Narad Muni Rana, Ganesh Kumar Pahadi and Mohan Bania have been dismissed.

Similarly, Ministers of State Chandrakant Chaudhary, Renuka Gurung and Ashakumari BK have been relieved of their posts.

The posts of Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel and Ministers Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Basant Kumar Nemwang and Lilanath Shrestha remained the same before the dissolution of the House of Representatives.