In a landmark interim order last week, the Supreme Court halted the implementation of the controversial Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme (CIDP), also known as the Constituency Development Fund, at both federal and provincial levels. A five-member constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha on Wednesday last week issued the interim order, asking the federal and provincial governments not to implement the programme, provisioned in the 445th point of the annual budget for the fiscal year 2023-24. The apex court’s order has essentially nullified the extravagant programme—if, as hoped, the final verdict upholds the interim order. This order goes a long way in righting the wrong committed way back in 1994, when a similar scheme was started under the CPN-UML chair Manmohan Adhikari-led government.

As expected, lawmakers of several political parties, including the ruling Nepali Congress, represented in Parliament have criticised the top court for “breaching” its jurisdiction and infringing upon the legislature’s lawmaking authority. But why are the lawmakers so worked up by the top court’s order? The answer is simple: The leaders have lost their cash cow, a generous fund that would help pay for the dana-pani of their cronies. Over the years, the fund had become nothing short of a white elephant, with government after government continuing and fattening this extravagant programme, with a few halts in between. Lately, the fund had come under intense criticism, as the governments had failed to justify its utility in the federal set-up, where the image of a lawmaker as a “conduit of development” had given way to a new image as a “maker of the law”.

The fact that many governments in the last three decades were coalitions with multiple partners helped turn the fund into a bargaining chip for lawmakers. Unable to bear the pressure of the coalition partners, finance ministers kept giving them as much as they wanted. The current finance minister, Prakash Sharan Mahat, allocated Rs50 million to each of the 165 federal constituencies after a gap of two years, when the funds were diverted to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. With the central government reviving the fund, provincial governments followed suit, adding to its unpopularity and prompting calls for it to be scrapped altogether. This, at a time when such funds had become redundant following the adoption of federalism, with significant functions related to infrastructure, education, and effective governance, among other things, devolved to the local level.

The apex court’s order has also brought to the fore the much-neglected idea of separation of powers vis-a-vis Parliament. Over the years, the legislative functions of the federal parliament and provincial assemblies have been sorely misinterpreted, as lawmakers have increasingly assumed executive roles, with a greater say in budgeting. Moreover, they have become so enmeshed in the despicable game of making and breaking governments that House sessions have failed to pass bills of national importance. A classic case was the first House session after the November elections that ended without passing a single bill. The quarrels between the ruling and opposition parties have led to several obstructions in the House, leaving it unable to fulfil any legislative duty. In such a scenario, the top court’s interim order is a timely reminder to the lawmakers that they should get back to fulfilling their legislative duties and stop eyeing state coffers for personal gains.