The Supreme Court has slapped one more unconstitutional move of the caretaker government of KP Sharma Oli. A division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher JBR and Justice Prakash Kumar Dhungana issued an order on Tuesday, saying that the 20 ministers could not discharge their duties as the two Cabinet expansions after the dissolution of the House were unconstitutional.

Prime Minister Oli had expanded  the Cabinet twice after the House of Representative was dissolved controversially the second time on 21 May. The Supreme Court invalidated both the Cabinet expansions on Tuesday, issuing the interim order after hearing on the writ petitions filed by six individuals including senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi.

While filing the writ, the petitioners had demanded to issue an interim order to the Oli government claiming that a caretaker Prime Minister did not hold the authority to take decisions with lasting impacts such as making changes to the cabinet. Hearing initially on the writ, a single bench of Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada then had issued a show cause notice to the government to submit clarification on its decision to reshuffle the cabinet within 15 days, on 29 May.

Oli had expanded his Cabinet on 4 June  and 10 June, inducting 17 ministers. Similarly, three state ministers were also appointed on the dates. On 4 June, the caretaker Prime Minister had appointed 12 ministers, including 10 from the Mahanta Thakur-Rajendra Mahato faction of the People's Socialist Party (PSP). He had appointed eight more ministers, including one state minister, a week later.

Including the senior advocate Tripathi, advocates Raj Kumar Suwal, Shalikram Sapkota, Kanchan Krishna Neupane, Birendra Prasad Sah and Sitadevi Shrestha had filed the writs on 7 June.

Earlier to this, the Supreme Court had issued several other orders to reverse decisions taken by the Oli's caretaker government.  Those orders include the interim order not to implement the controversial provisions of the Citizenship Ordinance.

Citing to the Article 77 (3) of the Constitution of Nepal, 2072, the Supreme Court issued the interim order to invalidate the Cabinet expansions. In the article, it is clearly stated that the same Cabinet continues to act until another Council of Ministers is constituted when the Office of the Prime Minister becomes vacant after the prime minister fails to win a vote of confidence or resigns.

With the judicial slap to Oli, only four ministers have left in Oli’s Cabinet, except Oli himself.