The Supreme Court has scrapped the six-year old decision of the KP Sharma Oli government to stop the renewal of registration for associations and committees of transport operators.

In an attempt to dismantle long-standing transport syndicates, a Cabinet meeting in April 2018 had instructed these associations to register under the Company Act. They had already been registered with the District Administration Office.

While several organisations complied, others took to the streets while also sought legal recourse. The Federation of Truck Transport Entrepreneurs Nepal (FTTEN) on July 17, 2018 had filed a writ petition at the top court against the government decision.

Passing a final verdict on the petition, a division bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Balkrishna Dhakal declared the government decision a violation of the constitutional right to property. “The government’s decision not to renew the registrations of the FTTEN and other transport-related organisations contradicts the existing law and has been scrapped,” reads the full text of the verdict from April 20, released on Friday.

Along with stopping their renewals, the government had also decided to confiscate the assets of the associations stating that the Organisation Registration Act stipulates that the assets of the organisations registered under the Act automatically become government property. The top court found this decision to be against Article 25 of the constitution.

It has cited Article 25 (1) of the statute, which says every citizen shall, subject to law, have the right to acquire, own, sell, dispose, acquire business profits from, and otherwise deal with, property. Similarly, Article 25 (2), which states shall not, except for public interest, requisition, acquire, or otherwise create any encumbrance on the property of a person too, has been cited in the verdict.

The district administration office (DAO) has the authority to revoke the registration of any organisation that flouts legal provisions. Stating that only DAO can take such a decision, the Malla-led bench found the Cabinet’s decision illegal.

The Cabinet is a higher authority than the DAO. The court has previously termed Cabinet decisions related to corruption as policy decisions and acquitted the ministers involved.

Following the court order, the FTTEN and other transport organisations can renew their registrations under the Organisation Registration Act. The court, however, in 2018 itself had issued an interim order against the Oli government's decision.

Besides halting registrations, the Oli-led government in 2018 had also opened route permits across the country for competitive distribution by amending the Transport Management Directives-2004.

All the umbrella bodies of the transport companies had taken to the streets demanding the revocation of the decision. This was around the time when several new transportation companies like Mayur Yatayat, began operations on the Kathmandu-Dhulikhel route.

Eleven committees of public transport operators had warned that they would not allow other buses to operate unless the Department of Transport Management scrapped the route permit issued to Mayur Yatayat. Buses belonging to new companies were frequently attacked or vandalised by those already in service.