The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a show cause notice against the recent Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli.
A single bench of Justice Ishwore Prasad Khatiwada conducting the first hearing on the petitions against the Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday has ordered the government to furnish reasons for Cabinet reshuffle in writing within 15 days.
The petitioners claimed that the government formed under Article 76(3) of the Constitution currently is of caretaker status and cannot reshuffle and expand Cabinet like regular governments. The petitions point that a caretaker government can only carry out essential works and argues that expansion of Cabinet is not essential.
The SC has invited both the sides for hearing on June 22 to decide whether an interim order needs to be issued or not.
Oli reshuffled the Cabinet Friday night. The Cabinet now has three deputy PMs, 12 ministers and two state ministers.
Bishnu Paudel (finance), Raghubir Mahaseth (foreign) and Rajendra Mahato are the three DPMs.
Education Minister Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Law Minister Lila Nath Shrestha and Physical Infrastructure Minister Basanta Nembang are the only ministers other than Paudel to not have been ousted during the reshuffle.
Sher Bahadur Tamang is the new Health Minister replacing Hridayesh Tripathi.
Oli also inducted ministers from the Thakur-Mahato faction of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) led by Senior Leader Rajendra Mahato.
Sharat Singh Bhandari has got Energy Ministry, Anil Jha Water Supplies Ministry, Uma Shankar Argariya Youth and Sports Ministry, Bimal Srivastav Labor Ministry, Laxman Lal Karna Land Reforms Ministry, Chanda Chaudhary Women Children and Social Welfare Ministry and Iqbal Miya Youth and Sports Ministry.
Chandrakanta Chaudhary is Minister of State for Energy and Renuka Gurung Minister of State for Women Children and Social Welfare.
