The Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice to the Election Commission, asking why the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was registered without ensuring 33 percent representation of women as required by the constitution and the Political Party Registration Act.

Demanding scrapping of the NCP’s registration for not fulfilling the mandatory requirement of 33 percent women’s representation, 14 lawyers and rights activists had filed a writ petition at the apex court on Thursday. Senior Advocate Surendra Bhandari and Advocate Indu Tuladhar and 12 others had filed the writ petition demanding the apex court to quash the NCP registration at the EC, claiming that it was against the law and constitution.

A single bench of Justice Anil Kumar Sinha issued the show cause notice to the EC, ordering it to furnish a clarification in writing within 15 days. According to Bhandari, the petitioners have not demanded an interim order and the SC has given priority to the case, a hearing of which will take place once the EC responds to the court notice. Petitioners had also demanded that the SC issue a mandamus order to all the parties to renew their registrations as per the constitutional and legal provisions.

Once the EC comes up with a response, it would raise the issue of mandatory women’s representation in all other parties, Bhandari said.On June 6, the EC registered the NCP without 33 percent representation of women in its central committee.