The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that the swearing-in of Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli on Friday should not be stayed through an interim order.
Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana hearing the four petitions demanding revocation of the swearing-in ceremony arguing that it was against the law has ruled on Tuesday that an interim order need not be issued in the case. "The order has arrived just now. The defendant has been asked to furnish written response within 15 days asking why the order as demanded by petitioners should not be issued. But it says that there is no need to issue an interim order to stay the oath," Lokendra Oli, one of the petitioners, told Setopati.
"While thinking about the oath of Rt Honorable PM and ministers, interim order need not be issued now as demanded as the final verdict will resolve the issue after written responses by the defendants arrive," the order by CJ Rana's bench states.
The petition brought by advocates Chandrakant Gyawali and Lokendra Oli, and separate ones by Santosh Bhandari, Navaraj Adhikari and Raj Kumar Suwal demanding revocation of the swearing-in ceremony claiming that it was against the law were registered by the Apex Court on Monday.
His petition demands revocation of the swearing-in of Oli, the content of the oath be fixed by formulating federal law, preventing Oli from working as PM until then, and revocation of unconstitutional reappointment of seven persons who are not lawmakers as ministers.
"We have also argued that the oath taken by telling the president that the part do swear is not necessary is contempt of the institute of presidency," he said.
Oli chose to skip the words 'do swear' while President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Shital Niwas on Friday apparently deeming it redundant as the sentence also included 'solemn vow'. He had quipped 'that is not necessary' when President Bhandari repeated the part as cue for him to repeat leading her to chuckle.
Oli also skipped the part 'god' while repeating the part 'in the name of god, people and country'.
Oli's refusal to utter the part 'do swear' despite President Bhandari's reminder was especially condemned widely on the social media and some also found his tone while saying 'that is not necessary' patronizing toward the head of the state.
