August 24: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order not to implement the infrastructure development programmes of the House of Representatives and all seven provincial assemblies mentioned in the budget of the current fiscal year (FY 2023/24).

The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court issued the order on Wednesday.

Responding to a writ petition filed by Advocate Trilok Bahadur Chand, the Constitutional Bench consisting of Chief Justice Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha and Prakash Man Singh Raut issued the interim order not to implement the parliamentary Constituency Infrastructure Development Fund.

"Considering the spirit of the constitution, the provision related to number 445 of the budget statement of the fiscal year 2023/24 and the provisions related to the parliamentary Constituency Infrastructure Development for the legislatures of all the seven provinces should not be implemented until the final hearing of this case,” reads the interim order issued on Wednesday.

While announcing the budget for the current fiscal year during a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly on May 29, Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat had mentioned that a budget of Rs 50 million has been set aside to implement infrastructure development programmes of the MPs in each constituency of the House of Representatives. Similarly, the state governments had also allocated budget to be spent on the plans recommended by the parliamentarians in the state assembly constituencies.

The Supreme Court has also demanded a written response from the federal government and the state governments within 7 days in this regard.

The Supreme Court has commented that Nepal has adopted a democratic governance system based on the principle of separation of powers and that it is not appropriate for legislators to use the executive powers of the federal cabinet and state cabinet. The apex court pointed out that giving MPs the right to choose plans and allocate budget would be counterproductive to the constitutional system.

The order states: 'It seems that the main work of the federal and state legislatures will be legislative in nature. It does not appear that federal parliamentarians or provincial assembly members are given the responsibility to perform executive functions.

The Supreme Court has warned that there will be a conflict of interest if the parliamentarians exercise their executive powers on issues that are not recommended by the National Planning Commission or the Provincial Planning Commission or the related ministries. It is said in the order, “When the parliamentarian themselves allocate funds in the name of infrastructure development of the parliamentary constituency, there will be a conflict of interest.”

Similarly, the Supreme Court has mentioned that the issue of transparency and accountability should be taken into consideration while spending government funds in such programmes.