SC issues show-cause order to government on amendment bill

Kathmandu / Dec 8: The Supreme Court has asked the government to submit a written reply regarding the reasons for bringing the constitution amendment bill on topics as altering the borders of the provinces, naturalized citizenship, representation on the National Assembly and the language commission, which, it said, were against the spirit of the constitution.

A single bench of Justice Jagadish Sharma Poudel issued the show-cause notice, calling on the government to come up with a written reply within December 20 regarding the reasons for registering the constitution amendment bill against the spirit of the Constitution of Nepal.

The apex court issued the show-cause notice in the name of the government in response to a writ petition filed by five people on behalf the Ex-MPs’ Forum that the constitution amendment bill was against the spirit of the constitution. Bishnu Bahadur Raut, Jhalak Nath Wagley, Shankarnath Sharma Adhikari, Brahma Narayan Chaudhary and Sarada Pokharel had filed the writ on December 1.

In the writ petition, the petitioners had argued that only the federal parliament and the province assemblies had the right to change the borders and the number of provinces.

They had sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to prevent the passage of the amendment bill registered in the Legislature-Parliament, citing it went against the intent and the spirit of the constitution. RSS