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SC quashes writ against 16-point pact
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday quashed the writ filed against 16-point agreement.The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday quashed the writ filed against 16-point agreement.
A joint bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha and Justice Sushil Karki quash the writ appeal filed jointly by advocate Bijaya Kanta Karna and Ria Sah at the apex court on June 17, seeking annulment of the agreement. The writ argued that the pact was against the Interim Constitution.
The Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and Madhesi Janadhikar Fourm-Loktantirk had on June 8, 2015 reached the 16-point agreement to expedite the constitution drafting process and finalise the issue of federal state boundaries through a commission after the promulgation of new constitution.
A single bench of Girish Chandra Lal on June 19 had issued an interim stay order directing not to implement the agreement.
Following the ruling, the parties prepared a draft to so as to federate the country into six states. But the agreement sparked protests across the country, forcing the parties to review the federal map. The parties promulgated the new constitution on September 20 with seven federal provinces.
There have been continuous protests in the Tarai region for the past four months against the new constitution, mainly the federal state demarcation.
The interim order drew flak for issuing interim order after its first hearing, saying that the court intervened in political issue. The apex court scrapped the writ after conducting fifth hearing on it.