As many as six writ petitions have been registered at the Supreme Court on Thursday against the ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act-2017.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Wednesday promulgated the ordinance on the recommendation of the Sher Bahadur Deuba government.

According to Supreme Court spokesperson Baburam Dahal, six petitions have been registered at the Apex Court against the government-issued ordinance.

“All the six writ petitions have been registered,” Dahal told the Post. “They have been assigned to the Constitutional Bench.”

Since there are more than a dozen writs to be heard on Friday, according to Supreme Court officials, the six writs would only be heard next Friday.

The ordinance issued by the Deuba government amended the provisions related to party split of the Political Parties Act-2017.

As per the new provision, any group that can prove the support of 20 percent of members in the Central Committee or Parliamentary Party can quit the mother party and register a new party. Before the amendment, such a group had to prove the support of 40 percent of members in the Central Committee and Parliamentary Party.

The ordinance has led to splits in at least two parties.

The country’s largest political party, the CPN-UML, has split after Madhav Kumar Nepal, a senior communist leader, applied for a new party—Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist (Samajbadi)—at the Election Commission, following the promulgation of the ordinance.

Similarly, the Janata Samajbadi Party, the fourth largest force in Parliament also lost a chunk after Mahantha Thakur filed an application to register Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (Loktantrik).