SC Upholds Terrorist Tag on Maoists

Kathmandu, March 23-The Supreme Court today upheld the government’s two-and-a-half-year-old decision to tag CPN-Maoist as a terrorist organisation and ban them. A three-member full bench of the Supreme Court judges Khil Raj Regmi, Badri Kumar Basnet and Gauri Dhakal pronounced the judgment stating that the writ petitioner who moved the SC could not produce sufficient evidence to prove that the CPN-Maoist was a political organization enjoying constitutional recognition.

Meanwhile, a separate three-member full bench of judges Khil Raj Regmi, Bal Ram KC and Gauri Dhakal upheld the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance 2005. Section 9 of the DATO authorises the government to put anyone in preventive detention up to a year. However, judge KC issued dissenting opinion. He said that section 9 contradicts with the 1990 Constitution.