Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has slammed the four former chief justices (CJ) accusing them of trying to wrongly influence the Supreme Court (SC).
"A few persons have started to say this or that should happen on the basis of once working in the court forgetting whether they had worked in the past or are still working there," Oli said addressing a gathering of the youth association of his CPN faction on Saturday. "I want to tell them it ill behoves persons who have reached the top post of the Supreme Court to carry out activities that wrongly influence and threaten the Supreme Court."
He slammed the quartet for disrespecting the SC and talking about democracy, justice and Constitution, and asked the four whether verdict is given by the constitutional bench or the streets. "Why do we need the court if what they say should happen?"
He claimed that he has never spoken against and chanted slogans against the SC forgetting how the then CPN-UML, he represented as a senior leader, had organized protest programs against SC's reinstatement of the House dissolved by the party's PM Man Mohan Adhikari in the 1990s.
Former CJs Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha and Sushila Karki on Friday had issued a statement concluding that the House dissolution by Oli is unconstitutional.
The Constitution does not have clear provision about House dissolution. Article 85(1) of the Constitution states 'Except when dissolved earlier, the term of House of Representatives shall be five years.'
Some constitutional experts argue that the Constitution envisions House dissolution due to the use of term 'dissolved earlier'. But others argue that the provision has been kept for the situation of inability to choose the PM.
Article 76(7) states 'If the Prime Minister appointed according to clause (5) fails to get the vote of confidence or if any member fails to be appointed as Prime Minister, the President shall, on the recommendation of Prime Minister, dissolve the House of Representatives and fix a date to conduct another election within six months.'
