Cabinet Approves HoR Declaration

The cabinet this morning approved the HoR Declaration which will be tabled in Parliament later this afternoon. A meeting of the cabinet which took place at Prime Minister GP Koirala's residence, approved the declaration.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will be presenting the declaration in parliament today.

Mainwhile Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade has differed on the issue.

“This is not the supreme body and it cannot do anything as it likes,” said Banjade. He also said it should work and decide everything within norms and values. He also questioned the legitimacy of the much-expected declaration of the House. “How can the declaration get legitimacy?” he asked.

Banjade called on the government and the House to choose whether to bring a new interim constitution or to incorporate all the things which would come in the declaration from the House into the existing Constitution through amendment to the 1990 Constitution. Banjade was speaking at a programme organised by a number of NGOs on wednesday , including the Nepal Law Society. “People will not accept autocracy from any quarter,” Banjade said. “Unless the declaration is incorporated into the Constitution through amendment, how can we believe that it is part of the Constitution,” he asked. Banjade added that it takes time either to bring a new interim Constitution or to amend the existing one to legitimise the declaration.

Advocate Bhimarjun Acharya said that such a declaration of supremacy of the parliament is sheer violation of the rule of law. “This is nothing but undermining the rule of law and lacking in legitimacy,” he said, adding that it amounted to nothing different from the “King’s autocracy”.