The Supreme Court (SC) has revoked appointment of seven ministers who are not federal lawmakers.
A single bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Thursday issuing an interim order has revoked appointment of seven ministers including Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa who are not federal lawmakers.
The SC has ruled that Article 78 of the Constitution allows appointment of non-lawmakers as ministers only once while revoking appointment of the seven ministers.
CJ Rana has issued the interim order after preliminary hearing on the writ petition filed by advocates Kapil Dev Dhakal and Biraj Thapa instructing to not allow the seven to work as ministers pointing that their appointment and swearing-in are not in accordance to the Constitution.
The ministers ousted by the SC are Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Industry Minister Lekh Raj Bhatta, Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Urban Development Minister Prabhu Sah, Water Supplies Minister Mani Thapa, Labor Minister Gauri Shankar Chaudhary and Sports Minister Dawa Lama.
Home Minister Thapa has contested the National Assembly by-election held on Thursday.
The seven were first appointed ministers by Oli in his majority government even though they were not lawmakers in accordance to Article 78(1) of the Constitution that states 'Whatsoever is contained in clause (9) of Article (76), the President may, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, appoint deputy Prime Minister, minister, minister of state, assistant minister, who is not a member of the Federal Parliament.'
Clause (2) of Article 78 states 'The minister appointed according to clause (1) shall have to receive membership of the Federal Parliament within six months of taking oath of office.'
Similarly, Clause (3) of the Article states 'If the minister fails to get the membership of the Federal Parliament according to clause (2), the minister shall not be eligible for reappointment as minister during the tenure of the existing House of Representatives.'
The majority government of Oli was toppled after he failed the floor test on May 10. Oli was reappointed PM on May 13 as per Article 76(3) of the Constitution in capacity of the leader of the largest party in the House.
He had continued the seven non-lawmakers when he formed his Cabinet the next day including all the ministers that were in the previous Cabinet.
The SC has ruled that reappointment of the seven non-lawmakers as ministers prima facie is against the spirit of the Constitution when they had to get membership of the federal parliament within six months of first becoming ministers without being a lawmaker.
