The Supreme Court on April 3 is set to conduct the final hearing of the petition by CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli against the Election Commission and Speaker Agni Sapkota regarding expulsion of his party’s 14 lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal.

A division bench of justices Ishwor Khatiwada and Kumar Chudal on Sunday decided to send the case for the final hearing.

“Since a written response has already been submitted and it is imperative that the final hearing be conducted to ensure swift resolution of the constitutional and legal questions, present the case for the final hearing on April 3,” states the order issued by the bench.

With this ruling, the Supreme Court will now present its verdict on April 3 including on the petitions related to the expulsion of the two Lumbini Provincial Assembly members of the UML, Bimala Khatri Oli and Ajay Shahi.

“There is a practice in the Supreme Court to send petitions for the final hearing once all the processes including deliberations from both sides are completed,” said Bimal Poudel, spokesperson for the Supreme Court. “A verdict will come after the final hearing.”

Earlier on September 21, a division bench of justices Deepak Kumar Karki and Kumar Chudal had refused to issue an interim order on the cases filed by UML chair Oli against Speaker Agni Sapkota and the Election Commission and had instead asked the defendants to submit original documents regarding the charges against them.

The UML on August 17 had expelled 14 of its lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, and written to the Parliament Secretariat to issue a notice in that regard. Speaker Sapkota, however, ignored the letter.

On August 26, Nepal decided to split from the UML, aided by an ordinance issued by the government, and formed a new party—the CPN (Unified Socialist).

The UML took umbrage at the Speaker for not issuing the notice, an action the party believes facilitated the split. On the 13th day since the UML notified the Parliament Secretariat about the expulsion of the 14 lawmakers, Sapkota on August 29 said in a statement that there was no need to issue a notice because the lawmakers in question had already registered a new party.

The UML has also argued that the Election Commission failed to abide by the existing laws while agreeing to register a new party by lawmakers who were expelled days ago.

Justices Karki and Chudal had sought original documents of the decision taken by the Election Commission and the Speaker.

The UML had decided to expel 14 of its lawmakers months after 28 lawmakers of the party skipped the May 10 voting when Oli had sought a vote of confidence in the House.

Oli had filed the petitions on September 2 against the Speaker and the Election Commission and the decision of sending it for the final hearing on Sunday came after the case was enlisted for the 12th time for hearing.