Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has picked the members for the Constitutional Bench for the hearing of 30 petitions against the dissolution of the House of Representatives.

Chief Justice Rana has named Justices Deepak Kumar Karki, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Tej Bahadur KC and Bam Kumar Shrestha as the members of the Constitutional Bench, according to the Supreme Court.

“Chief Justice Rana has formed the bench comprising seniormost justices,” Kishor Poudel , a communication expert at the Supreme Court, told the Post. “The hearing will start at around 11:30.”

The Constitutional Bench is a constitutionally envisioned bench which is led by the chief justice with the prerogative to select members from a roster of senior justices.

Currently, there are 13 senior justices, besides chief justice, on the roster.

Rana has repeated KC in the Constitutional Bench, while other members are new. KC was part of the Constitutional Bench that Rana had constituted while hearing petitions against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s earlier House dissolution of December 20. The bench on February 23, however, overturned the House dissolution decision.

But three months later, President Bidya Devi Bhandari late on Friday night dissolved the Parliament on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

The President has called snap polls on November 12 and 19.

As many as 11 petitions have been directly registered at the Constitutional Bench while 19 were registered at the Supreme Court.

A single bench of Chief Justice Rana on Thursday decided to send all 19 petitions to the Constitutional Bench, saying a detailed interpretation of the constitutional provisions is required.

After listening to opening arguments from the petitioners, Rana rejected their demand to issue an interim order directing resumption of the House of Representatives. He also refused to constitute an extended full bench to decide on the matter.

“The Constitutional Bench today will decide whether to go for a continuous hearing or not today,” said Devendra Dhakal, joint spokesperson of the Supreme Court.

In general, the Constitutional Bench sits just twice a week–Wednesday and Friday.