A three-member full bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana, on Thursday rejected Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal’ petition seeking a review of the court’s March 7 to scrap the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and revive the CPN-UML and the Maoist Centre.

Deciding on an almost three-year-old case regarding the Nepal Communist Party name, a division bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Bam Kumar Shrestha on March 7 had invalidated the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by KP Sharma Oli and Dahal.

Oli’s UML and Dahal’s Maoist Centre in May 2018 had merged their parties to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

“The full bench has rejected the review petition filed by Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal,” said Devendra Dhakal, information office of the Supreme Court. “Full text of the decision has not been released yet so the reasons given for rejecting the revelation petition are not known.”

Dahal filed the petition on March 30 demanding a review of the March 7 decision.

With the full bench, comprising Justices Tej Bahadur KC and Prakash Dhungana as members, rejecting Dahal’s review petition, the UML and the Maoist Centre now would remain in their pre-merger status, as ordered by the divisional bench on March 7.