NCP faces legal challenge for violating constitutional provision

The newly formed ruling Nepal Communist Party is facing a legal challenge after a group of lawyers moved the Supreme Court demanding quashing of its registration for failing to fulfil a constitutional provision of allocating 33 per cent seats to women in its central committee.

Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli-led the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist) and Prachanda-led the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) were merged last month to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

According to local media reports last month, there were only 70 women in the 441-member NCP central committee, which is just 16 per cent, far behind the legal requirement of 33 per cent women's representation in all party committees.

A group of 13 lawyers, including senior advocates Surendra Bhandari and Indu Tuladhar, yesterday filed a plea in the apex court demanding quashing of the NCP's registration with the Election Commission (EC).

They argued that the EC's decision to register the NCP as a political party without fulfilling the legal provision of mandatory 33 per cent women representation in the party's central working committee was against the Constitution.

Bhandari said they had also demanded the SC to issue a order of mandamus to all political parties to renew their registration as per the constitutional and legal provisions.

On June 6, the EC had registered the NCP as a registered political party, even as it failed to fulfil the provision of 33 per cent women's representation in its central body.

The petitioners have claimed that the decision of registering the party violates the Constitution and provisions of the Political Party Registration Act.