The Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice to the Election Commission and the ruling Nepal Communist Party how the two parties were registered with similar names.
The Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice to the Election Commission and the ruling Nepal Communist Party how the two parties were registered with similar names.
The Rishi Kattel-led Nepal Communist Party moved the apex court on Friday, after the poll body on October 26 had rejected its petition not to allow the ruling party to have similar name.
A single bench of Justice Dambar Bahadur Shahi on Monday issued the show cause notice to NCP Co-chairs Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and the EC besides the ruling party.
Advocate Dandapani Poudel had advocate for the Kattel-led NCP while a number of advocates, including former attorney general Mukti Pradhan, were against the writ.
The ruling NCP was formed on May 17 after the merger of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre). On June 6, the new party received the party registration certificate from the EC with the name Nepal Communist Party. Citing Section 6 (1) of Political Party Act in its petition, the Kattel-led NCP has argued that the EC cannot register a new party in case the name of the new party resembles any of the registered party.
On October 26, the EC had annulled the party’s petition, saying its earlier decision was legitimate as the party’s name was registered after the formal unification of already registered UML and Maoist Centre.
Kattel said if the party failed to get justice from the apex court, a number of parties with similar name and election symbol would be registered at the EC as per the
precedent set by the constitutional body.
Earlier on June 14, a group of advocates including Surendra Bhandari and Indu Tuladhar had filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court demanding that the registration of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) be scrapped, claiming that the party was registered without fulfilling the provision of the constitution—mandatory 33 percent women representation.
Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade.
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