CPN-UML lawmaker from Lalitpur-1 Nava Raj Silwal will not lose his post even if the forgery case against him were lodged at the court.
Preparations are on to register a case against him on charge of forging performance evaluation file but he will lose his post only if the criminal case is proved against him, according to the constitution. Article 87(1) says 'not having been convicted of a criminal offense involving moral turpitude' as a qualification for federal lawmaker.
Legal advisor to the Parliament Secretariat Arjun Khadka told Setopati that swearing in of Silwal will not be stopped merely due to registration of a case. "The Federal Parliament Secretariat will not suspend him or take any other action until the court issues an order or writes to us," he stated.
But he will be suspended if the police arrest him and move the process forward and the court writes a letter.
The then lawmaker of CPN (Maoist Center) was suspended only after the court wrote a letter acting on an arms and ammunition case registered against him. Lama was arresrted with 14 rounds of bullets in March, 2016.
Similarly, the then Sadbhawana lawmaker Sanjay Sah (aka Takala), was also suspended only after the Dhanusha District Court remanded him to judicial custody.
The suspension will be revoked if the court finds the supsended lawmaker to be innicent.
Silwal, however, has been absconding after the police initiated investigation against him on charge of forgery.
