While the political parties are engaged in a marathon of discussions over extending the CA's term for another year, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the term cannot be extended by more than six months in normal situation. The government had floated a 46-week calendar for the peace and constitution writing process.
The CA term cannot be extended for more than six months unless there are special circumstances and a state of emergency is imposed, said an SC full bench led by chief justice Khila Raj Regmi reviewing the November 4, 2010 verdict on a writ filed by advocates Bharat Mani Jangam and Balkrishna Neupane. The two had claimed that the last year’s CA term extension was unconstitutional, and that the extension should be annulled.
The SC rejected the demand to annual the extension, but pointed out that the CA had breached its jurisdiction by using the authority of the Legislature Parliament to amend the constitution.
It has asked the Legislature Parliament and the CA to correct the mistake by taking the decision to amend the constitution through the legislature parliament the next time the constitution is amended.