All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) on Thursday furnished a written reply to the Patan High Court and also submitted an application to vacate the writ petition filed by Makawanpur and Bhaktapur District Football Associations (FAs) seeking election postponement of the football governing body of Nepal.

Acting on the FAs petition, the Patan High Court had on March 22 ordered Anfa not the go ahead with its scheduled election. Anfa election was originally set for January 25 but has since been postponed four times on various pretext in the last four months, the last of which was put off indefinitely on March 22 due to the court stay order.

Anfa had failed to hold the election of Bhaktapur and Makawanpur  districts due to controversy over the representatives for the General Assembly. The Patan High Court had stayed the Anfa election acting on the writ petition filed by Bhaktapur District Football Association president Gautam Sukhaju and Makawanpur District Football Association vice president Manish Shrestha. The duo had stated in their petition that Anfa had violated their rights to participate in the election.

But following the court verdict, Anfa conducted the election of Bhaktapur FA on April 10 and Makawanpur FA on April 6. “Besides furnishing a reply to the Court, we also submitted application to vacate the writ petition filed but the concerned FAs since their demands for participation in the election are already addressed,” Anfa president Narendra Shrestha said.

“The next hearing is set for April 25  and we will be able to hold election  10 days after the court verdict,” said the Anfa president. As for the demands of Manish and Gautam the Anfa president said: “Gautam had agreed to withdraw his case from the court but Sukhaju is insisting on ensuring his candidacy in the executive committee election. We are looking for a legal remedy to address his demand. Otherwise, the election committee will go as per the directives of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).”