KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has upheld its administration’s decision to reject a writ petition challenging the appointment of the Chief Justice.

A Constitutional Bench comprising Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma and Justices Kumar Regmi, Binod Sharma, Abdul Aziz Musalman, and Mahesh Sharma Paudel passed the order on Wednesday upholding the administration’s refusal.

The writ petition, which sought the annulment of the Constitutional Council’s decision, had previously been referred to the Constitutional Bench.

Earlier, a single bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel, during a preliminary hearing, had ordered that the rejected petition be forwarded to the Constitutional Bench.

Advocate Gita Thapa had filed the petition demanding the invalidation of the ordinance, arguing that the recommendation to appoint the Chief Justice from the fourth position of seniority based on that ordinance was unlawful.

Following the Constitutional Council’s decision, Manoj Kumar Sharma, who was fourth in the seniority line at the Supreme Court, has already been appointed as Chief Justice and has assumed office.

The writ petition challenging the Constitutional Council’s recommendation was brought to the Supreme Court for registration immediately after Sharma was recommended.

However, the Supreme Court administration rejected it and held it for 10 days, allowing the writ to be officially registered only after the Chief Justice had already assumed office.

The Supreme Court upheld the administration’s rejection order, stating that the petition seeking to annul the nomination of the proposed Chief Justice Sharma had lost its relevance.

The Supreme Court had previously upheld similar rejection orders regarding writ petitions filed by Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi and Advocate Prem Raj Silwal.