Supreme Court vacates stay in Yak & Yeti case

Kathmandu, Jan 19-The Supreme Court on wednesday vacated its January 9 stay order to the government authorities not to build wall in front of the main entrance of the Yak and Yeti Hotel at Durbarmarga.

A division bench of judges Sharada Prasad Pundit and Top Bahadur Magar vacated the stay order issued by justice Paramananda Jha.“Since the land, which the Hotel was using, is the land owned by the Nepal Industrial and Development Company (NIDC), there is no need to continue the stay order (that barred the NIDC from constructing the wall),” the bench said.
A single bench of justice Jha had on January 9 issued the stay order to the authorities after the government-owned corporation (NIDC) on January 8 began constructing a wall in front of the main gate of the Hotel.

Corporate advisor to the Hotel, Maheshwor Lal Mishra, had filed a petition in the SC challenging the NIDC move. The NIDC, the Ministry of Local Development and the Kathmandu Metropolitan City were the defendants in the case.

The petitioner have claimed that the Hotel has renewed the 1974 contract to use the NIDC’s land as a passage to the hotel in 1999. The petitioner also claimed that the second contract allows the hotel to use the land as the passage for 20 years.

Former attorney general Badri Bahadur Karki and advocates Mithilesh Kumar Singh and Komal Narayan Das pleaded on behalf of the Hotel. Senior advocate Sarvagya Ratna Tuladhar defended the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Nepal Bar Association president Shambhu Thapa and advocates Sitaram Tiwari and Shahayog Pokhrel defended the NIDC.