The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered to not immediately implement the decision to expel four lawmakers of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) from the provincial Assembly of Lumbini.
JSP had expelled Santosh Pandey, Bijay Yadav, Kalpana Pandey and Suman Sharma Rayamajhi from the provincial assembly on April 29 after they joined the Shankar Pokharel Cabinet immediately after the party registered no-confidence motion against Pokharel in coordination with Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Center) on April 19 proposing Kul Prasad KC of Maoist Center as the next chief minister (CM).
A single bench of Justice Nahakul Subedi hearing the petition filed by the four has ordered on Monday that the decision not be implemented immediately. The bench deeming that expelling them without giving an opportunity to explain their version is against the principle of natural justice has ordered that the expulsion not be immediately implemented, according to the SC.
It has said that the expulsion should be kept on hold until both the sides are heard by the court and a decision on whether to issue interim order or not is taken. The court, however, has not set a date to hear arguments of both the sides.
The faction of Chairman Upendra Yadav and Federal Council Chairman Baburam Bhattarai, that wanted to topple Oli at the center, had warned the four lawmakers to resign as ministers or face action, and duly expelled the quartet after they refused to oblige.
JSP Chairman Mahantha Thakur writing to speaker of the provincial assembly had clarified that no lawmaker was punished in Lumbini. He pointed that integration of the erstwhile Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) and Federal Socialist Forum has been completed in the provincial assembly of Lumbini, and the six-strong parliamentary party can autonomously take decision on the issues of the provincial assembly.
The Yadav-Bhattara faction without informing the Thakur-Mahato faction sent the decision signed by the majority of executive members of JSP to the speaker for expulsion of the lawmakers. JSP has submitted a list of 51 executive members--26 from the erstwhile RJP and 25 from Federal Socialist Forum--to the Election Commission after unification of the two parties.
The party has three chairmen--Thakur, Yadav and Bhattarai--but their presence is not mandatory for meeting and attendance of the majority of executive members suffice as per the party statute.
