SC directs NAC, tourism ministry for comments

The Supreme Court directed the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture (MoCTCA) and a petitioner to attend in its hearing on Monday.A division bench of Justices Bala Ram KC and Ram Kumar Prasad Shah issued the order directing advocate Nanda Prasad Adhikary, who had filed a case of public interest litigation (PIL), and NAC and MoTCAC to attend its hearing on Monday over the demand of vacating the SC’s stay order it had issued issued on November 14. The bench told the both parties that they couldn’t request to extend time for the case.The bench was acting on a demand of the NAC management that sought the vacation of the SC’s stay order to stop its process of overhauling Boeing 757 by a Chinese company, Ameco, Beijing. Justices Anup Raj Sharma and Sharada Prasad Pundit had issued the stay order on November 14, citing that the invocation of the special authority of Managing Director of the NAC, Gautam Das Shrestha, could not justify the urgency to decide on repairing the Boeing. The NAC MD had invoked the authority without calling tender form the eligible companies to repair the Boeing.Seeking the apex court’s intervention on the issue, Adhikary had filed the PIL, which charged Shrestha of violating Clause 66 of Public Procurement Act 2063.