Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has claimed that words were arbitrarily picked from his speech and embellished to file the contempt of court case against him.
PM Oli who reached the Supreme Court (SC) Thursday to furnish written response in person contended his commitment toward separation of powers pointing how his government has always implemented SC orders and never obstructed dispensation of justice by the Apex Court.
The contempt of court petitions cited Oli's speech at a program in Karki Banquet in Babar Mahal on January 22. "They have apparently taken an old lawyer for the show," Oli had commented about 94-year-old senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari who argued against the House dissolution during the ongoing hearing.
But Oli argued that his words were taken out of context and garnished to file the contempt of court cases. "I gave my take on the written response I had submitted to the honorable Supreme Court in the gathering of CPN cadres. The presented petitions seem to have been filed by arbitrarily lifting a few words and sentences I spoke there without considering the complete words and sentences and garnishing them to see if a case can be filed. The petition claim, therefore, is polluted. Meaning of any word and its intent should be taken out on the basis of the whole statement of any speaker," Oli has argued in his written response.
Pointing that such petitions only waste time of the PM and the SC, he has called for revocation of the contempt of court case.
A single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma hearing different contempt of court cases on January 28 had ordered PM Oli, former chief justices (CJ) Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha and Sushila Karki, and former speaker Daman Nath Dhungana to appear before the court in the contempt of court cases related to their statements about the sub judice case of House dissolution.
The SC had also ordered Pushpa Kamal Dahal to appear in the court to provide written response in another contempt of court case against Dahal.
Senior advocate Kumar Sharma Acharya on January 24 had taken a contempt of court case against PM Oli. Similarly, advocate Kanchan Krishna Neupane had also submitted a contempt of court case against PM Oli for commenting on a sub judice case and using obscene and indecent language against lawyers.
The contempt of court cases cited Oli's speech at a program in Karki Banquet in Babar Mahal on January 22. "They have apparently taken an old lawyer for the show," Oli had commented about 94-year-old senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari who argued against the House dissolution during the ongoing hearing.
They lodged the cases pointing that he called the hearing a show and called a legal professional old. "We request action for contempt and punishment as the words used by Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and the behavior expressed by him amount to contempt of the court and the bench," the case filed by Neupane states.
The four CJs went to the SC on Monday and provided written response in the case against them. PM Oli has gone to the court Thursday.
