The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Office of Provincial Head of Koshi Province to appoint CPN-UML’s provincial assembly leader Hikmat Karki the chief minister of the province.

A full bench of the apex court comprising Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Chudal and Nahakul Subedi issued the mandamus order to appoint Karki as the chief minister within 48 hours as per Article 168(3) of the constitution, Govinda Prasad Ghimire, information officer at the Supreme Court told the Post.

The bench declared the vote of confidence taken by Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa unconstitutional.

Article 168(3) states that if a government couldn’t be formed under 168 (2), the provincial head shall appoint as the Chief Minister the parliamentary party leader of the party which has the highest number of members in the provincial assembly. The chief minister appointed under clause (2) or (3) shall obtain a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly no later than 30 days after the date of such appointment, it says.

With the court’s decision, the incumbent Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa has been thrown out of power within over a month of his appointment to the post. On August 1, Thapa was appointed in accordance with Article 168(2) of the constitution after he laid claim to lead a majority-based government with the signatures of 46 lawmakers and Speaker Baburam Gautam.

The petition by Karki was filed in the Supreme Court demanding that an order be issued to quash the incumbent ‘unconstitutional government’ formed under Article 168 (2) of the constitution and issue an order paving the way for the formation of a new government in accordance with Article 168 (3).

The vote of confidence secured by Thapa was challenged in the court as lawmakers chairing the meeting also participated in the voting process.

Earlier while issuing an interim order, the court had stated that the presiding member does not have the right to vote on any proposal presented to the provincial assembly for decision unless in the event of a tie as per Article 186 of the Constitution.

With 40 seats, UML is the largest party in the 93-member assembly.