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Impeachment motion against CJ: SC ruling puts House on horns of dilemma
Speaker Onasari Gharti is on the horns of a dilemma after the Supreme Court’s interim order on Friday to put an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Sushila Karki on hold.Speaker Onasari Gharti is on the horns of a dilemma after the Supreme Court’s interim order on Friday to put an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Sushila Karki on hold.
As the ruling Nepali Congress-Maoist Centre coalition and an opposition bloc led by the CPN-UML continue to squabble over the impeachment motion, Speaker Gharti is under pressure whether or not to take the issue forward when the Legislature-Parliament sits on Sunday.
As many as 249 NC and Maoist lawmakers on April 30 filed an impeachment motion against Karki, charging her with interfering in the executive’s jurisdiction. But a single bench of Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Thursday stayed the impeachment motion, saying the move “is against the spirit of the Constitution of Nepal” and ordered the Legislature-Parliament to put it on hold. The apex court ruling also allowed Karki, who stood suspended following the registration of the impeachment motion, to return to the court.
The ruling coalition has objected to the apex court order, saying it infringed upon the jurisdiction of Parliament. The NC-Maoist coalition is making a pitch for including the impeachment motion in the House agenda. The opposition bloc, which was against the impeachment motion, has welcomed the apex court ruling and called on the ruling coalition to withdraw the move.
Scheduled House meetings on Thursday and Friday were adjourned over the impeachment motion.
“Speaker Gharti wants to put the impeachment motion on hold for now. However, a final decision will be taken after consultations with leaders of various parties,” Babin Sharma, press adviser to Speaker Gharti told the Post.
While the ruling coalition’s move of filing the impeachment motion has drawn widespread criticism, the apex court ruling has also given rise to complications, with different views being aired by different sections.
According to officials at the Parliament Secretariat, the House has been put in a predicament by the apex court ruling.
“Some complexities have arisen after the interim order,” said an official at the Parliament Secretariat, stressing that the political leadership should sort the issue out. Speaker Gharti has called a meeting of chief whips of parties on Sunday before setting the House agenda for the day.
As far as the ruling coalition is concerned, which has come under immense moral pressure after the apex court ruling, leaders, according to sources, are planning to form a parliamentary committee to study whether the interim order “is an attack on the jurisdiction of Parliament”.
“There is no doubt that the order is an attack on the authority of Parliament. We are for moving impeachment motion forward,” Ram Narayan Bidari, a Maoist lawmaker, told the Post. “The parties are also exploring different options, including formation of a parliamentary committee.”