Resham Lal Chaudhary, patron of the Nagarik Unmukti Party Nepal, has filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court against the decision to cancel his candidacy.
On Friday, Chaudhary moved the apex court seeking to overturn the election officer's decision to scrap his nomination for the House of Representatives election from Kailali Constituency No. 1.
According to Joint Registrar Arjun Prasad Koirala, spokesperson for the Supreme Court, the hearing for this case has been scheduled for Sunday.
On Thursday, the Office of the Election Officer revoked Chaudhary's candidacy.
"The nomination of Resham Lal Chaudhary, a candidate of the Nagarik Unmukti Party Nepal (single election symbol), for the election to the post of member of the House of Representatives under the first-past-the-post electoral system, has been canceled as it does not appear to be maintainable according to the prevailing law. Act according to the law," states the decision made by the election officer.
Election Officer Devraj Bharati told Setopati that the decision was based primarily on three grounds.
“It was found that a life imprisonment sentence was imposed by a Supreme Court verdict. Under the House of Representatives Member Election Act, a person sentenced to life imprisonment is disqualified from becoming a candidate,” Bharati said. “In addition, we have also taken into account the Election Commission’s earlier decision stating that he is ineligible even to be a member of a political party. Furthermore, it was found that while he received a pardon, the sentence itself remains unchanged.”
On the recommendation of the government, Chaudhary had received a pardon from the president in the case related to the Tikapur incident.
However, under the House of Representatives Member Election Act, a person sentenced to life imprisonment is not eligible to become a candidate.
Chaudhary had filed candidacy from Bardiya Constituency No. 2 in the 2022 election while he was still in prison. His candidacy was canceled at that time as well.
His father Lalbir Chaudhary then contested the election from Bardiya-2 as an independent candidate. Lalbir later joined the Nagarik Unmukti Party. He is currently associated with Nagarik Unmukti Party Nepal.
