The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Nepali Congress to hold its 15th general convention.
On Thursday, a bench comprising Justices Nahakul Subedi, Mahesh Sharma Paudel, and Meghraj Pokharel refused to issue an interim order on a petition filed by former Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, former acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka, and others.
Supreme Court spokesperson and Joint Registrar Arjun Prasad Koirala informed Setopati that with this decision, the path for holding the general convention is now clear.
“With the order stating that an interim order is not required, there is no restriction on them proceeding with their activities. Since the petitioners had sought to stop those activities, the order appears to allow regular work to continue,” Koirala said.
The party’s 15th general convention is scheduled to be held in Kathmandu from October 2 to 5.
A special general convention was held in January, but the Deuba faction did not participate.
Earlier, on April 17, a bench comprising Justices Sharanga Subedi and Nripadhwaj Niraula recognized the faction supporting the special general convention as legitimate.
The Deuba faction subsequently approached the Supreme Court seeking a review of that decision. A bench comprising Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma and Justices Nityananda Pandeya and Shreekanta Paudel granted permission for a review.
After the review was permitted, the Deuba faction filed a supplementary petition seeking to halt the general convention.
The court said that there was no need to issue an interim order because the April 17 decision had dismissed the petition without issuing any order or directive requiring implementation.
The order stated that although the law may provide for the suspension of a decision’s implementation until a review is settled, the April 17 ruling did not contain any directive requiring execution and had instead dismissed the petition. Therefore, the court found no prima facie grounds to issue the interim order sought by the petitioners.
