The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to issue interim order demanded by the Khanal-Nepal faction of ruling CPN-UML to stop Chairman KP Sharma Oli from taking action against leaders of the faction.
A single bench of Justice Prakash Dhungana hearing the petition on Monday has said there is no need to issue the interim order demanded by petitioners as the leaders have just been asked to submit explanation and not punished.
"The demanded interim order does not need to be issued merely on the basis of seeking explanation for internal party works in the preliminary state now," the bench has stated.
The SC has also asked the defendants to reply within 15 days the reason for seeking explanation from the leaders and why the demanded interim order need not be issued.
UML leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bhim Rawal and Ghanashyam Bhusal reached the Apex Court on April 21 claiming that Oli's decision to dissolve the central committee to form organizing committee for general convention and take action against them is against the party statute and laws of the land.
The SC registered the petition the next day after taking a day to study whether it deserves to be registered or not.
"We demand revocation of the so-called decision of March 12, intra-party instruction given on the basis of that decision, the action taken and to be taken against us, amendment of party statute, division of responsibilities, order related to removing obstacles as they are illegal, ill-intentioned, and against the Constitution of Nepal and the act related to political parties right from the beginning," the petition stated. "We demand a mandamus ordering that the central committee elected by the ninth general convention in accordance to the UML statute be allowed to function as previously."
The petition also demanded certiorari order to block the action to be taken against 27 leaders including the petitioners. It also pointed that they strongly suspect that Oli can expel them from the party and has sought to stop that.
Oli on April 20 sent letters to 27 leaders giving them three days to explain why they should not be expelled from the federal parliament. They have also been warned that they can be punished any time for acting against the party and what the party claims is a popular government.
The leaders who were asked to furnish explanation include Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Bhim Rawal, Ghanashyam Bhusal, Surendra Pandey, Met Mani Chaudhari, Pabitra Niroula, Jhapat Rawal, Yagya Raj Sunuwar, Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Bhawani Khapung, Birodh Khatiwada, Som Prasad Pandey, Narayan Khatiwada, Ganesh Pahari, Jaya Kumar Rai, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Yogesh Bhattarai, Hira Chandra KC, Pushpa Kumari Karna Kayastha, Kalyani Khadka, Laxmi Kumari Chaudhari, Krishna Lal Maharjan, Sarala Kumari Yadav, Nira Devi Jairu, Ram Kuamri Jhakri and Mukunda Neupane.
Oli had earlier suspended a few leaders including Nepal from the party for six months.
