Kathmandu, June 18: Rajiv Gurung ( Deepak Manange) has been disqualified from his position as a member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly. The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench issued the decision on Wednesday, declaring his parliamentary seat void with immediate effect.
The bench—comprising Chief Justice Prakashman Singh Raut and Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla, Kumar Regmi, Hari Prasad Phuyal, and Kumar Chudal—ruled that Gurung’s election was invalid due to a prior criminal conviction. The court stated that since the verdict in his criminal case had reached finality, he was legally unfit to hold public office.
The court concluded that Gurung was ineligible to contest the 2022 provincial elections as he had been sentenced to five years in prison. As a result, the court declared his provincial assembly membership null and void effective from June 18.
