Kathmandu, Aug 21: The Supreme Court has annulled the government’s appointment of Maheshwor Bhakta Shrestha as executive chairman of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).
A bench of Justices Sunil Kumar Pokharel and Balkrishna Dhakal, in its final hearing on Thursday on a petition filed against Shrestha by Upendra Bahadur Karki, ruled that his appointment was not in accordance with the law.
However, the court said Karki’s claim that he should be appointed chairman himself did not have sufficient legal grounds.
Shrestha’s appointment as executive chairman and general manager of the corporation was also found to have violated the government’s appointment procedures.
Under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation’s “Standards for the Appointment and Nomination of Members and Office Bearers of Public Bodies, 2073,” a person appointed as the executive chief of a public body must be at least 30 years old and not more than 65.
Karki had filed the writ petition arguing that Shrestha was already over 65 and had been appointed 34 years after retiring from the corporation.
With Thursday’s ruling, Shrestha has been removed from the post, and the government will now have to appoint a new executive chairman through a fresh process. He will, however, continue to serve as a member of the corporation’s board of directors.
Shrestha was also among five board members whose appointments had previously been annulled by the Supreme Court.
The government had appointed five members to the Nepal Airlines board on April 13. The Supreme Court later scrapped those appointments.
Karki had filed the petition in that case as well, and the Supreme Court had annulled the appointments following its hearing.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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