The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to allow Phanindra Devkota to continue working as a member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly.
Responding to a writ petition filed by Devkota, a single bench of Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut issued the interim order in his favor on Monday.
The court said in its order that there was no dispute about Devkota’s election to the Gandaki Provincial Assembly. The petitioner is associated with Nepal Samajwadi Party and was not found to have quit the party or been expelled by the party, therefore CPN (Maoist Center), a political party he is not associated with, does not have the right to expel him as a member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly, the court’s order further said.
Devkota, who is also a central member of NSP, won the election from the Gorkha-2(a) provincial assembly constituency on Maoist Center’s symbol in 2022.
Devkota crossed the floor to vote for Gandaki Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey during the floor test on June 10. Maoist Center took action against him for giving the vote of confidence to the chief minister against the party’s whip.
Speaker Krishna Dhital read out the letter about Maoist Center’s action against Devkota in the Gandaki Provincial Assembly, following which he lost the posts of lawmaker and energy minister.
Devkota had been maintaining that he is a lawmaker and leader of NSP and had voted for the chief minister according to the party’s instruction.
