2nd amendment bill to Nepali Interim Constitution passed

Nepali Interim Parliament held at Wednesday night passed "Interim Constitution of Nepal (Second Amendment) Bill - 2007" by the votes of two-third majority, Nepali national news agency RSS reported Thursday.

According to the second amendment bill passed, ouster of the monarch would be possible only if the parliament is able to present evidence that the monarch was trying to disrupt the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections slated for November.

The bill has also provisioned for the removal of the Prime Minister through a no trust motion, which needs to be passed by a two third majority of the 329-member Interim Parliament. The Prime Minister should call the meeting of the parliament within a fortnight if one fourth members of the parliament proposed for the same at the time when the parliamentary is not sitting.

The bill includes the provision of holding parliamentary

hearing before appointing the judges of the Supreme Court and ambassadors of Nepal to different countries.

Other provisions of the amendment are provision of opposition party at the parliament, review of report of the Electoral Constituencies Delineation Commission only on technical matters.

In the voting on the proposal of amendment, 281 parliamentarians voted on the side of the amendment and two parliamentarians voted against the amendment. Navaraj Subedi and Pari Thapa were the two Parliamentarians who voted against the proposal.

Wednesday's house meeting started at 19:35 (1350 GMT), passed the bill in its second session at 22:35 (1450 GMT).

Minister for Home Affair Krishna Prasad Sitaula had presented the proposal in this regard on behalf of Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. After the bill passed, he termed the amendment as "end of ancient era and start of new era."

Earlier, Special Committee formed under Interim Parliament to hold discussion on Interim Constitution of Nepal (Second Amendment) Bill - 2007 had discussions on registered proposals for the amendment to the Bill and decided to present the Bill in the parliament by forging consensus in five different subjects.

Nepali government tabled the Second Amendment Bill as per the decision of the eight parties on June 6.

The first amendment bill to Nepal's Interim Constitution was passed by Interim Parliament on March 9.

Source: Xinhua