The Supreme Court has set a single date for hearing two opposing writ petitions on 13 January to decide whether the President or the Interim Election Council (IEC) Chair has the right to call the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA).
The court issued the order on Wednesday responding to a writ petition filed by advocate Biswas Acharya. Acharya has claimed that President Ram Baran Yadav has the constitutional authority to convene the first CA meeting while another writ petition filed by advocate Mukunda Adhikari has claimed that IEC Chair Khil Raj Regmi has the authority to summon the first CA meeting.
The apex court has already sought the help of ‘amicus curie’ (friends of court) to hold debate on the matter, concurrently initiating the process to seek clarification from IEC Chair and President as to why they think that they have the authority to convene the CA meeting.