The Supreme Court has revoked the government's decision to dissolve the Land Commission.
Supreme Court spokesperson and Deputy Registrar Arjun Prasad Koirala said that a joint bench of Justices Sharanga Subedi and Shreekanta Paudel issued the writ on Monday.
The hearing on this writ had been ongoing since Sunday. With the issuance of the writ, former chairman Hari Prasad Rijal and others will now be able to return to work.
On October 9, a Cabinet meeting headed by Sushila Karki had decided to dissolve the central office and 77 district offices of the Land Commission.
Following the decision, Chairman Rijal filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on October 26, arguing that the commission was dissolved without any opportunity for clarification, and demanded that the decision be revoked.
After the initial hearing on October 28, a bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel issued a show-cause order and a short-term interim order, directing the government to not implement the decision immediately.
It also called both parties for a discussion on October 30 regarding whether to issue an interim order.
On October 30, a bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Shanti Singh Thapa issued an interim order, continuing the previous short-term interim order.
The final hearing date was set for November 30. The court made its decision after two days of hearings.
Since the Land Commission was dissolved, work such as identifying landless Dalits, landless squatters, and unorganized settlers, and distributing land had been halted.
Since the promulgation of the new Constitution, 8,848 landless Dalits, landless squatters, and unorganized settlers have received land ownership certificates. Among them, the number of unorganized settlers is the highest.
