Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: A case related to the scrapping of the candidacy of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate from Dhanusha-1, Kishori Shah, has been marked as “cannot be heard” by the Supreme Court.
The case had been assigned to a joint bench of Supreme Court justices Sharanga Subedi and Tek Prasad Dhungana.
The hearing was scheduled for Friday to decide whether Sah’s candidacy would remain valid.
The Election Commission had annulled the candidacy of Sah, a construction entrepreneur by profession, on March 2 on the grounds that he was on the blacklist of the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) for banking offenses.
Sah challenged the decision in the apex court, arguing that no complaint had been filed against him and that the decision to cancel his candidacy was made during the election silence period.
During the hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued an interim order directing that Sah should not be placed on the blacklist. “Since a letter from the defendant, CIB, showed that the petitioner was not currently on the blacklist, there was no justification for the decision to blacklist him. Therefore, until the final verdict on the petition, the decision to place him on the blacklist and all related actions should not be implemented, in accordance with Rule 49(2) of the Supreme Court Rules, 2017,” a single bench of Justice Saranga Subedi said in its order on Thursday.
Advocate Dipendra Jha, who argued the case on behalf of Sah, said the Supreme Court’s order keeps the RSP candidate Sah’s candidacy valid.
While the dispute over Sah’s candidacy was still ongoing, the Election Commission had already declared Matrika Prasad Yadav of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), elected from Dhanusha-1, and handed him the certificate of election.
Even after scrapping Sah’s candidacy, the EC had not removed Sah’s election symbol, the bell, from the ballot paper. As a result, a large number of voters cast ballots for Sah. The Office of the Returning Officer of Dhanusha decided to count the votes received by Sah for ‘documentation’ purposes. Sah reportedly received more votes than any other candidate in the constituency.
If the apex court orders the EC to declare Sah elected from Dhanusha-1, RSP will have 183 seats—one short of the two-thirds majority.
