Nepal president appoints 20 to constitutional bodies under controversial ordinance

On 4th May, the Oli government amended the Constitutional Council Act (Functions, Duties, and Procedures) 2010 by reissuing an ordinance, and recommended 20 appointees on 9 May, just a day before the government lost the trust vote in parliament on 10 May.

Oli moved ahead with reissuing the ordinance despite the strong objections from the opposition, which, in turn, challenged the amendment in the court. Also, under the amended law, the appointments are needed to go through a parliamentary hearing which, in both cases, didn't happen.

Ignoring all anomalies in the process, President Bhandari confirmed appointments on Thursday, just two days after the apex court struck down the appointments of 20 ministers of the Oli’s cabinet.

“The amendment to the Constitutional Council Act is against the spirit of the constitution. I had sought the Supreme Court’s intervention to invalidate it and scrap the appointments,” Advocate Om Prakash Aryal, one of the petitioners challenging the ordinance, was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.

Moreover, this is not the first time when the appointments were made in crucial constitutional commissions under the controversial ordinance. On 20 December, the day before the Oli government recommended the dissolution of the lower house for the first time, the government recommended 38 appointees; Of which, 32 were later confirmed by the president in February.

Among the appointees were members of the country’s Election Commission, National Human Rights Commissions.