The Supreme Court has interpreted that the then CPN-UML candidate Padma Aryal accepted the election result of Syangja Constituency No. 2 in the 2022 general election.
Aryal had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, alleging irregularities in the election of Syangja-2 held in November 2022.
Responding to the petition in August last year, the Supreme Court recognized Nepali Congress candidate Dhanraj Gurung as the legitimate winner of the election.
A bench comprising then-chief justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and justices Kumar Regmi, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, Sapana Pradhan Malla, and Prakash Man Singh Raut issued the verdict on August 21, 2024.
The full text of the verdict has now been made public.
The full text explains that the petitioner's silence implies acceptance of the election result.
The apex court has interpreted that Aryal accepted the election result by remaining silent.
“Among the candidates affiliated with the same political party, Padma Aryal does not appear to have challenged the Election Commission’s decision of November 29, 2022,” the verdict states. “The complainant herself did not challenge the Election Commission’s decision of November 29, which was based on the report submitted by the investigation team formed to look into the issue she had raised. According to the principle ‘silence signifies consent,’ the court must infer that she accepted the decision.”
Aryal and Buddhiman Shrestha, the provincial assembly candidate from the CPN-UML for Syangja 2 (b), had accused NC workers of hooliganism at Disingkot Basic School polling center and other polling stations during the elections held on November 20, 2022.
She had submitted an application on November 21, demanding the cancellation of voting at the allegedly captured booths and a re-election.
Later, the Election Commission formed an investigation team.
Based on the report submitted by the team, the Election Commission decided on November 29 to instruct the office of the election officer to proceed with the vote count.
However, the Supreme Court dismissed the writ petition, stating that Aryal did not challenge that decision.
The court also mentioned in its verdict that the petitioners were required to submit evidence in this case but failed to do so.
“The party challenging the Election Commission’s decision must bear the responsibility of presenting coherent and concrete evidence to substantiate their claim. In this case, the petitioner failed to provide concrete evidence to support the claim that the commission’s decision was flawed,” the verdict states.
NC’s Gurung won the House of Representatives election from Syangja-2 with 31,466 votes, while Aryal received 25,829 votes.
