Kathmandu, October 7
With some Supreme Court justices and staffers contracting Covid-19, the hearing on two writ petitions filed against the appointment of ruling Nepal Communist Party’s vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam as a National Assembly member has turned uncertain.
A five-member constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana was scheduled to hear the case against Gautam on Wednesday. However, with some justices and staffers in isolation, the court did not include the case on the cause list today.
For the past few days, only one to two benches are working at the court everyday.
A court source says it is not sure when the next hearing will take place.
In their separate petitions, senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi and advocate Badri Raj Bhatta have claimed Gautam’s appointment as a lawmaker has breached the constitution, and it is likely to cause serious damage to the constitutional system. Therefore, he should be barred from working as a lawmaker until the final verdict is made on the case, they demanded.
In the first hearing on the petitions, the court has issued an interim order barring Gautam from taking over any other constitutional responsibilities except the lawmaker.
