Show cause notice to govt

Kathmandu Oct 19-The Supreme Court on Wednesday has issued show cause notices to various ministries and both the Houses of Parliament regarding the controversial media-related ordinance introduced by the government early this month.A single bench of Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel ordered the government to attend the haring on the case on October 30. The case would be handled by a special bench.

The Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet, Parliament Secretariat, Ministries of Information and Communications and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs have to respond to the order, as they have been made defendants in the case.

During the hearing Nepal's former Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki, advocates Dhrubalal Shresha, Madhav Kumar Basnet and writ petitioner advocate Ravi Raj Bhandari pleaded seeking the apex court stay order to the government not to implement the Ordinance issued on October 9.

Two lawyers Ravi Raj Bhandari and Kahar Singh Khadka jointly filed the petition seeking the apex court order to nullify the Ordinance. They claimed that the Ordinance curtailed the rights of the media guaranteed by the 1990 Constitution.

In their public interest litigation filed at the apex court on Tuesday, advocates Bhandary and Khadka had argued that the said ordinance is against the letter and spirit of the Constitution of the kingdom of Nepal, 1990, as well as Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 and, hence, should be declared null and void.According to the petitioners, the Ordinance was issued against Articles 1, 3, 11, 12 (2) (a), 13, 16, 69 72 (1 & 2) and 116 of the Constitution and against Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights-1948, Article 19 of the Civil and Political Rights and various precedents established by the Supreme Court. “Thus, there is no other option than to declare the Ordinance void,” they claimed.

They also claimed that the issuance of the Ordinance has violated Article 35 (2) of the Constitution under which the King acts on the recommendation of the Cabinet.

The petitioners had made the Council of Ministers, Ministries of Information and Communications, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, House of Representatives and National Assembly as defendants.

In his verdict, CJ Poudel also ordered that the defendants be also made present during the hearings on whether an interim order needs to be issued or not, as demanded by the writ petitioners.