The Supreme Court has upheld the appointment of 52 officials to various constitutional bodies made without parliamentary hearings four years ago.

A total of 15 writ petitions, including one filed by then Speaker Agni Sapkota, had sought the annulment of these appointments. The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench conducted joint hearings and issued its verdict late Wednesday, July 2.

The petitions were forwarded to the Constitutional bench after preliminary hearing.

Among the five justices on the bench, Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Dr. Kumar Chudal, and Dr. Manoj Sharma ruled in favour of the appointments. Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut and Justice Dr Nahakul Subedi dissented, arguing that the appointment of the first batch of 32 officials should be annulled.

However, all five justices unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of the second batch of 20 appointments.

The officials were appointed by the KP Sharma Oli-led government on February 3 and June 24, 2021, to key institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission, Public Service Commission, Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), National Women Commission, and Dalit Commission.

Prior to these appointments, on December 15, 2020, the Oli administration had amended the Constitutional Council (Functions, Duties, and Procedures) Act through an ordinance. The amendment allowed the Constitutional Council to convene meetings with a simple majority, bypassing the earlier requirement for the presence of at least five out of six members.

The Constitutional Council is chaired by the prime minister and includes the chief justice, speaker, deputy speaker, chairperson of the National Assembly and leader of the opposition. With the deputy speaker’s post vacant at the time, a meeting attended only by the prime minister, the National Assembly chairperson, and the chief justice had recommended the appointments.

These appointments were made at a time when the Oli-led government was under political pressure due to a deepening rift within the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP), formed by the merger of Oli’s CPN-UML and Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre).

The appointments were made at a time when the government dissolved the Lower House twice in five months, only to be reinstated by the Supreme Court on both occasions.

On December 20, 2020, Prime Minister Oli dissolved the House of Representatives and called snap polls for April 30 and May 10, 2021. The Supreme Court overturned the decision on February 23.

The government dissolved the House again on May 22, calling for mid-term elections for November 12 and 19. The Supreme Court once again invalidated the dissolution on July 12.