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Kathmandu, December 1: The Supreme Court has annulled the government’s decision to dissolve the Land Commission.

A joint bench of Justices Sharanga Subedi and Shreekanta Paudel has declared the Cabinet’s decision to dissolve the Commission invalid.

After the court issued an order in the writ petition, which had been under continuous hearing since Sunday, the then Chairperson Hari Prasad Rijal and other officials of the Commission will now be able to return to their duties. The Commission had been dissolved from its central office down to its 77 district offices by the Cabinet led by Sushila Karki on Asoj 23, 2079 BS (October 9, 2022).

Against the government’s decision, Chairperson Rijal filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court on Kartik 9 (October 26, 2022), alleging that the Commission was abolished without being given any opportunity for clarification. During the preliminary hearing, on Kartik 11 (October 28, 2022), a bench of Justice Meghraj Pokharel issued a show-cause order and an interim order, instructing the government not to implement the decision.

In the subsequent proceedings, on Kartik 13 (October 30, 2022), a bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Shanti Singh Thapa continued the short-term interim order and issued a full interim order. The final hearing was scheduled for Bhadra 14 (August 30, 2023), and after two days of continuous hearing, the court delivered its verdict on Monday.

After the Land Commission was dissolved, processes such as identifying landless Dalits, landless squatters, unmanaged settlers, and distributing land to them had come to a halt.

Since the promulgation of the new constitution, 8,848 landless and unmanaged settlers have received land-ownership certificates, with the majority being unmanaged settlers.

People’s News Monitoring Service.