The Supreme Court (SC) has quashed Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar's decision to send back the recommendations of new justices made by the Judicial Council (JC).
The single bench of Justice Jagdish Sharma Poudel ruled on Monday that the speaker's decision is against the constitution and the JC's recommendations must be forwarded to the Parliament's Hearing Committee.
Two weeks ago, the JC had recommended the names of 11 new justices for the SC and sent them to the speaker's office for a parliamentary hearing. But the speaker sent back the recommendations to the JC, saying that the hearing committee was not formed yet due to a delay in passing parliament rules.
Speaker Magar's decision created a face-off between the legislature and the judiciary and garnered the dismay of Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha.
The newly elected President of the Nepali Congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba, also termed the speaker's decision as an interference by the legislature in the judiciary.
Hours before the SC's ruling, Speaker Magar had clarified with CJ Shrestha that she did not intend to intervene in the judiciary and her decision was simply 'practical'. She also asked the JC to send the recommendations once again.
But the SC's decision means that the speaker will have to forward the very recommendations that she had sent back. Advocate Jyoti Baniya had filed the writ at the SC that challenged the speaker's decision.