The Supreme Court on Friday revoked the Parliament Secretariat's decision to suspend Nepali Congress lawmaker Tek Bahadur Gurung, a convict on a corruption charge.

A division bench of justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Binod Sharma quashed the decision and allowed Gurung to participate in parliamentary proceedings more than two years after he was elected to the House of Representatives from Manang in the November 2022 polls.

Passing a verdict in Gurung's writ petition, the top court said his suspension was against the spirit of the constitution and Act Relating to the Federal Parliament Secretariat. On December 27, 2022, the secretariat suspended Gurung because a corruption case against him was sub judice in the Special Court.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against Gurung and others in the Special Court on February 4, 2019. They were charged with irregularities while leasing out land to Fun Park, a children’s amusement park at Bhrikutimandap. As per the law, any individual holding an office of benefit gets suspended once a corruption case is lodged against him/her.

Gurung faced corruption charges even before he was elected.

Passing a verdict in the case, the Special Court on March 1 last year found Gurung, former minister for women, children and social welfare Badri Neupane and six others guilty of corruption.

The full bench of Special Court Chairman Shrikant Paudel and judges Shaligram Koirala and Balabhadra Bastola found them guilty of involvement in irregularities worth Rs 315.21 million. The court fined Gurung Rs12 million.

The Fun Park, which covers 60 ropanies of land owned by the Social Welfare Council, the regulatory body of non-government organisations, is operated by a Gurung-led company.

Following the Special Court order, Gurung had moved the top court seeking its order to revoke his suspension arguing that he was not sentenced to jail but was only fined. The court agreed to his plea.

Legal experts, however, find a serious flaw in the decision. They say allowing a convict to resume public office will have far-reaching negative consequences. "The order is a breach of the Prevention of Corruption Act-2002 and the CIAA Act," advocate Om Prakash Aryal, who also chairs the Constitutional Lawyers' Forum, told the Post. "If this ruling prevails, nobody will be suspended from the positions they hold when corruption cases are filed against them or even after their conviction."