The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has upheld the administrative order to reject a writ petition challenging the appointment of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma.
The Constitutional Bench, presided over by Chief Justice Sharma himself, along with Justices Kumar Regmi, Binod Sharma, Abdul Aziz Musalman, and Mahesh Sharma Paudel, endorsed the Supreme Court administration's initial decision to reject the petition.
"An application filed against the administrative order to reject a writ petition regarding the appointment of the chief justice was presented to the Constitutional Bench today, and the rejection order has been upheld," said Supreme Court spokesperson and Joint Registrar Arjun Prasad Koirala.
Three separate writ petitions had been filed at the Supreme Court following the Constitutional Council's recommendation to appoint Sharma as chief justice. The Supreme Court administration had initially rejected all three petitions. Appeals filed against the rejection order were put on hold by the administration until Sharma assumed office.
At that time, Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla had directed the court administration to register the appeals against the rejection. However, these were only registered after Chief Justice Sharma took charge.
On May 25, these three applications were presented before the bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel. The bench ordered that the appeal filed by Advocate Gita Thapa and others against the rejection be presented to the Constitutional Bench.
"The demand to annul the ordinance raised in this petition falls under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Bench as per Article 137, and the application seeking to overturn the rejection order should also be heard by the same bench. Therefore, the application should be presented to the Constitutional Bench,” the order stated.
Accordingly, the case was forwarded to the Constitutional Bench to decide whether the rejection order was correct or not.
However, the rejection of petitions filed by Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi and Advocate Prem Raj Silwal was upheld.
