The Supreme Court on Monday removed Gandaki Chief Minister Khagaraj Adhikari from his office, terming the vote of confidence he took in the first week of May unconstitutional.

The court has ruled that the 30 votes the chief minister received were insufficient to win the trust vote, stating that 31 votes should be obtained to command a majority in the 60-member assembly.

A division bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Sunil Kumar Pokharel ordered the Gandaki Provincial head to appoint Nepali Congress provincial assembly leader Surendraraj Pandey as the new chief minister within 48 hours.

The bench issued a mandamus order to appoint Pandey to the position as per the constitutional provision, which stipulates that the province head shall appoint the parliamentary party leader of the party with the highest number of members in the provincial assembly as the chief minister if the chief minister, appointed with the support of two or more parties, fails to win a trust vote within 30 days.

Pandey had moved the court challenging the chief minister’s vote of confidence in the provincial assembly on May 5. He had also sought the apex court to issue an order to appoint him chief minister.

During the floor test, the Speaker of the Gandaki provincial assembly had declared that Chief Minister Adhikari secured the trust vote. Amid protest from the opposition party, Speaker Krishna Prasad Dhital announced that the votes obtained by the chief minister constituted a majority based on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.

The announcement triggered yet another controversy regarding the majority in the 60-strong provincial assembly. A total of 30 members voted in favour of Chief Minister Adhikari. The speaker then claimed that the number was sufficient to prove the majority.