By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu: With only three days left for Nepal’s interim constitution to become invalid, parliament’s tenure to end and the government to face dissolution, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the bickering political parties Wednesday, saying they could not extend the deadline endlessly under flimsy pretexts.
A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi ruled that Nepal’s parliament, elected in 2008 with the mandate of drafting the new constitution by May 28, 2010, should have completed the task within the given time.
The judges said the two-year time given to parliament could have been extended by six months at the most had there been a state of emergency, imposed due to the invasion of Nepal or natural calamities.
However, the parliamentary parties, failing to complete the task, amended the constitution in a midnight drama last year, giving themselves another year.
The judges said the procedure was incorrect. They also struck down an earlier verdict given by a special bench of the apex court that had given a boost to the failing parties.
The special bench had said that parliament would continue till the new constitution was written.
It gave heart to communist Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal who after taking three months to form his cabinet had begun to seek additional time this month, saying the new constitution would not be ready by May 28.
Wednesday’s verdict came after two lawyers, Balkrishna Neupane and Bharat Jangam, challenged the extension given last year.
Though the judges scrapped the lawyers’ writ, saying it had no relevance with the extended tenure also coming to an end in 72 hours’ time, Jangam hailed the verdict, saying it would force the parties to re-think before seeking yet another extension in three days’ time.
“If they do, we will challenge that too in court once again,” he said.
The court’s rebuke that the legislators had to be focused on writing the constitution within the given time came even as the three top parties kept up their old tradition of fighting even in the face of a national crisis.
The ruling communists and Maoists held a much-vaunted meeting with the main opposition party, the Nepali Congress, in a five-star resort in Kathmandu ostensibly to reach an agreement on seeking yet another extension.
However, even with just 72 hours left for a constitutional breakdown, neither side was ready to compromise. Consequently, there was no agreement, just as there had been almost none for nearly three years.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be reached at [email protected])