The Supreme Court (SC) has paved the way for swearing in of Bindabasini Kansakar as House of Representatives (HoR) member.
The SC hearing the petition filed by Dhaka Kumar Shrestha against his expulsion by Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) on May 8 had instructed the party to not immediately implement removal of its lawmaker.
But a joint bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Nahakul Subedi on Wednesday has ordered that the earlier order need not be continued, according to SC Spokesperson Bimal Paudel.
The latest order has paved the way for swearing in of Kansakar that was stopped by the previous order.
RSP had removed Dhaka Kumar Shrestha from lawmaker and party member on April 12 after the audio recording of a phone conversation alleged to be between him and businessman Durga Prasai.
Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire has already read the notice of Shrestha’s expulsion in the House while the party has already sent acid attack survivor Bindabasini Kansakar as HoR member through the Proportional Representation electoral system to replace Shrestha.
The party’s central committee meeting held on April 12 had decided to punish Shrestha after audio recording of him purportedly demanding Rs 20 million from promoter of B&C Medical College Durga Prasai was made public.
Kapurbot Media had first published audio recording of what it claimed was the deal between Shrestha and Prasai.
Shrestha, who was elected to the House of Representatives (HoR) through the Proportional Representation electoral system, could be heard telling Prasai that the amount was needed to give to RSP President Rabi Lamichhane’s men for Shrestha to become health minister.
The conversation took place at the start of January, as Prasai informed in the audio, when RSP was negotiating in the then ruling coalition also including CPN-UML to get the Health Ministry. Shrestha could be heard telling Prasai that Lamichhane would make him heath minister only if he handed over Rs 20-25 million to Lamichhane's men.
