The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a show cause order in the name of the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) to be present on January 12 with written explanation regarding cabinet expansion.

A single bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha issued the notice seeking reason behind the expansion of Council of Ministries. A hearing to this effect will take place on January 13 following a written clarification on January 12, the SC order mentioned.

On December 27, advocate Kanchan Krishna Neupane registered a writ petition at the apex court arguing that the cabinet expansion breached Nepal’s Constitution -2072.

It is stated in the writ petition that the cabinet expansion took place against the provision on the formation of Council of Ministries enshrined in Article 76 (9) of the Nepal’s Constitution – 2072 which states ‘The President at the recommendation of the Prime Minister will form the Council of Ministries with 25 ministers in full capacity including the Prime Minister as per the principle of proportionality from among the members of the Federal Parliament’.

The split of four ministries for expansion of the cabinet – at a time when the government is falling short of providing relief to the quake-victims – will lodge annual additional financial burden of around Rs 6 billion to the country, the petition states.