KATHMANDU:

JULY 12 – The Supreme Court has issued a mandamus order requiring Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba to be appointed as the Prime Minister within two days.

The Constitutional Bench comprising Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Meera Khadka, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, and Dr. Ananda Mohan Bhattarai issued the order of mandamus. The Bench had given a verdict reinstating the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament, before this, today.

The apex court has also ordered that the House of Representatives session be convened on July 18. The full text of the verdict would be issued after some time, the Supreme Court said.

Thirty writs were filed challenging the constitutionality of the government’s decision of dissolving the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, on May 22, dissolved the lower house of parliament, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, and fixed the date for the mid-term election on November 12 and 19.

The writs had sought to invalidate the decision of the dissolution of the House of Representatives.