The Supreme Court on Friday ordered its administration to register two writ petitions against CPN (Maoist Centre) chair and prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal for claiming responsibility of 5,000 insurgency-era deaths three years ago.

Hearing a case filed by two advocates against the decision of the Supreme Court administration to reject their petitions, a division bench of justices Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Hari Prasad Phuyal ordered the court administration to register the two petitions, which were filed on behalf of 20 persons.

“Today [Friday] the division bench scrapped the decision of the Supreme Court administration not to register the petitions,” said Bimal Poudel, spokesperson of the Supreme Court.

Advocates Gyanendra Aaran and Kalyan Budhathoki, who are also conflict victims, had filed separate writ petitions at the Supreme Court but the administration on November 10 last year refused to register them claiming that the issue was related to transitional justice and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was dealing with the cases and the petitioners had already registered their cases at the commission.

In their petitions, the victims demanded the court take necessary legal action against Dahal for the killings that he himself owned up to.

According to Budhathoki, the 20 writ petitioners, who were conflict victims, have demanded the Supreme Court hold Dahal accountable for the deaths of 17,000 people in the Maoist insurgency and not only of the deaths of 5,000 people.

On January 15, 2020, while addressing a Maghi festival celebration event in Kathmandu, Dahal had said that he, as the leader of the Maoist party that led the decade-long insurgency, would take the responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people and that the state should take responsibility for the remaining deaths.

It is estimated that around 17,000 people had lost their lives during the decade-long insurgency.

With Friday’s decision of the division bench, the writ petitions will be registered on Sunday.

On November 14 last year, the Supreme Court had asked its administration to give clarifications for its refusal to register the petition against Dahal. A single bench of Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki had decided to seek a report on why the Supreme Court administration had refused to register the petitions filed by advocates Aaran and Budhathoki.