Nepal’s Growing Ordinance Culture: Emergency Tool or Political Weapon?
Summary
Nepal's executive has increasingly used ordinances to bypass Parliament, pushing controversial legal changes while sparking accusations of executive overreach and political manipulation.
Key Points
- Prime Minister Balendra Shah's government used ordinances to bypass Parliament, including on the Constitutional Council Act and cooperatives.
- Article 114 of Nepal's 2015 Constitution governs the ordinance process as an emergency legislative mechanism when Parliament is not sitting.
- Under President Bidya Devi Bhandari, ordinance controversies arose, with accusations of partisan use favoring KP Sharma Oli's government.
- The Constitutional Council ordinance of December 2020 drastically altered quorum rules, enabling Prime Minister Oli to make numerous constitutional appointments amid political deadlock.
- Ordinances in Nepal have frequently become tools of factional politics rather than emergency governance, with recurring failures to convert ordinances into permanent law.
