A resolution is in sight in the tussle between the President's Office and Parliament over the appointment of general secretary at the Parliament Secretariat, as both the sides have agreed for an amicable solution, officials say.

Bharat Raj Gautam, the outgoing general secretary at the secretariat, submitted his resignation from the post to President Ramchandra Paudel on December 10. The next day, Speaker of the House of Representatives Dev Raj Ghimire, in consultation with Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, chair of the National Assembly, recommended Padma Prasad Pandey as his replacement.

However, the President remained indifferent to act on the recommendation saying Pandey's nomination didn't follow due process. His aides said that Pandey was recommended to the position before Gautam's resignation was even approved.

Paudel accepted Gautam's resignation on December 13, two days after Pandey was recommended to the position. His refusal to appoint the general secretary even led to a public dispute between the two state bodies.

However, after a month-long hiatus, the two sides are coming together to resolve the matter. Speaking to the Post, Baburam Kunwar, the President's legal advisor, said the general secretary will be appointed very soon. “The appointment has been halted because of some procedural flaws in the recommendation but we have reached a conclusion to bridge the differences," he said. "The Parliament Secretariat will send a new recommendation. And there will be a prompt appointment."

The constitution says the general secretary of the federal parliament is recommended to the President in consultation with both the Speaker and the chairperson of the National Assembly. It, however, has no deadline in deciding on the recommendation.

The aides to the Speaker, however, say they are unaware if the Parliament would make another recommendation. “We are waiting for the appointment,” Shekhar Adhikari, Ghimire’s press adviser, told the Post. “However, I am unaware of any development about sending another recommendation.”

Following a refusal from the President to appoint Pandey, the Speaker on December 13 assigned him the duty of acting general secretary arguing the lack of administrative leadership had hampered the functioning of the Parliament Secretariat. The general secretary is the administrative head of the parliament. The acting chief has been leading the administration of the federal parliament for over a month now.

Pandey, the deputy attorney general, was appointed as the secretary of the House of Representatives in May last year. He got the appointment on CPN-UML's quota.

Gautam, also close to the CPN-UML, was appointed the general secretary in May 2020 and still had 10 months for retirement when he resigned. Ruling party leaders say they smell a rat in Gautam’s abrupt resignation and Pandey's recommendation to the position.

Both Ghimire and Timilsina come from the UML. Timilsina retires on March 3, 2024. As the ruling alliance holds a majority in the Assembly and is fielding common candidates in the upcoming elections, it is almost certain that the UML will not win the next chair. The National Assembly elections for 19 positions in the 59-strong House are being held on January 25.

Leaders from the ruling parties blamed the abrupt move to nominate a UML-affiliated official for general secretary even before Timilsina’s retirement, for the delay in the appointment.

Kunwar said as the President has been criticised despite acting as the constitution mandates him to do, he doesn't want to give a similar opportunity by prolonging the appointment process. Paudel’s move to pardon jail sentences of Resham Chaudhary, newly appointed chairperson of the Nagarik Unmukti Party, and Yog Raj Dhakal, a Nepali Congress cadre, met with widespread criticism.

But this is not the first time an appointment in the Parliament has led to differences among the two state mechanisms.

Similar differences between the President's Office and Parliament came to light in August 2016, when the then Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar had written to then President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Gopal Nath Yogi, an advocate close to the CPN (Maoist Centre), as the House secretary. But Bhandari sat on the appointment.

Yogi was appointed in April 2018 only after being recommended for the position once again, together with Rajendra Phuyal, a UML supporter, for the National Assembly.