KATHMANDU: Supreme Court has issued a show-cause order to the government in response to a series of petitions challenging the appointment of interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki and the subsequent dissolution of the House of Representatives.

The constitutional bench, led by Chief Justice Prakashman Singh, and including Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi, Hari Phuyal, and Manoj Kumar Sharma, issued the order after a hearing earlier in the day.

The court directed the defendants to submit a written explanation within seven days, but refused to grant an interim order that would have immediately suspended government actions.

“The subject matter of the interim order requested by the petitioners is of a nature that must be decided during the final hearing,” the order stated, emphasizing that there was no immediate need to issue an interim order at this stage.

The petitioners had argued that Karki’s appointment was unconstitutional and that the dissolution of HoR carried out thereafter was invalid.

They requested the court to issue an interim order barring the government from making any long-term or irreversible decisions until a final verdict was delivered.

During the hearing of 16 separate writ petitions, legal practitioners presented differing views.

Some argued that all governmental actions—except election-related activities—should be halted until the case concludes, while others demanded a complete freeze on both election and non-election activities.

The petitions were filed by a group of lawyers, including Dr. Prem Raj Silwal, Yuba Raj Paudel, Kirtinath Sharma Poudel, Ayush Badal, Maqbol Miya, Khadak Bahadur Shah, Dambar Prasad Shiwakoti, Dal Bahadur Dhami, Prakash Bhujel, Ayush Bhandari, Abhash Pokhrel, Om Prakash Jung Shah, Bimal Pokharel, Dr. Punya Prasad Khatiwada, and Sher Bahadur Rokaya, among others.