A contempt of court case was filed against four party leaders including Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subash Chandra Nembang for voicing discontent publicly against the Supreme Court ruling to stay the 16 Point Agreement, June 24, 2015.

A single bench comprising of Supreme Court Justice Girischandra Lal on Friday 19 June 2015 had issued a stay order based on Article 1, 82 and 138 of the interim constitution asking the parties not to promulgate the new constitution without resolving matters related to state restructuring.

Nepal’s four political parties, Nepali Congress, United Marxist Leninist, Unified Maoists and the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Loktantrik had signed the sixteen point pact which in essence claimed that their eight year long disputes related to several contentious issues of constitution has been resolved once and for all. Though, the parties had finalized the number of states to eight yet without naming them and also did not finalize their demarcation.

The case has been filed against Prime Minister Sushil Koirala Prime Minister’s secretariat and the cabinet, CA Chairman Subash Chandra Nembang, Vice-President Ram Chandra Paudel and leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula of Nepali Congress, Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Vice Chairman Bamdev Gautam of United Marxist Leninist, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and leader Baburam Bhattarai of Unified Maoists and Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gacchedhar of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Loktantrik.

Advocate Laxmi Prasad Pokharel charges that public statement made by the leaders following the SC ruling tantamount to contempt of court.

The joint statement issued by the four parties following the SC stay order is against Articles 1, 115 and 116 of Interim Constitution.

@telegraph