Hitendra Dev Shakya resumed charge as managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority on Wednesday, two days after the Supreme Court overturned the government’s decision to transfer him.

Speaking after taking office, Shakya said he would work at full capacity and focus on institutional performance. “The energy minister can be assured. I will work at full capacity,” he said. “I will move ahead without fear, and with good faith.”

He said he intends to apply what he has learned in the past, adding that he and the minister share a similar understanding of the energy sector, as they come from the same institution–the NEA.

The court on Monday annulled the Cabinet’s move to transfer Shakya to a newly created post of energy expert at the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat.

A bench of Justices Nahakul Subedi and Shreekanta Paudel said the minister’s move to transfer him appeared biased and retaliatory, and that such arbitrary decisions could not stand under the rule of law.

Shakya on November 7 had challenged the transfer decision at the court, seeking reinstatement. The Cabinet had removed him from the NEA on October 21 at the recommendation of Energy Minister Kulman Ghising and appointed him to the special post. On September 21, the Cabinet had appointed Manoj Silwal as managing director, just five months after Shakya took charge.

Earlier, the KP Sharma Oli Cabinet on March 24 had removed Ghising and appointed Shakya. Ghising, credited with ending chronic load-shedding, criticised the decision as political interference. After the Gen Z protests toppled the Oli government, Ghising joined the Sushila Karki-led interim administration as energy minister.

Ghising’s earlier effort to collect billions in overdue payments from industries for dedicated and trunk power lines is understood to have contributed to his removal from the NEA.