The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an interim order to not implement the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme included in the fiscal budgets presented by the federal government and all the seven provincial governments for the current fiscal 2023-24.

Hearing on a writ petition filed by Advocate Trilok Bahadur Chand, a constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha, justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha and Prakashman Singh Raut ordered against the implementation of the programme until the final verdict.

The constitutional bench has noted that the major responsibility of lawmakers from both the federal and provincial houses is to perform legislative duties. “We can’t find any responsibility of executive nature given to the lawmakers,” the order reads.

The court has also stated that allowing lawmakers to allocate funds to be mobilised in their own electoral constituencies by themselves is tantamount to conflict of interest.