Following the resignation of Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara after a Parliament Secretariat staffer accused him of sexual misconduct, his press advisor Dilli Malla says his resignation is conditional and he would return to the position if the probe cleared him.
In his resignation letter, Mahara has said that his resignation will be effective “from today till the conclusion of the investigation.” In that line, Malla says, “No one should panic or be happy over the Speaker’s decision. He will be free of all invented and illusionary allegations and return to the position.”
Constitutional experts, however, say resignation can never be conditional. Advocate Bipin Adhikari and ruling Nepal Communist Party’s deputy parliamentary leader Subas Chandra Nembang argue that Mahara’s condition, hence, is meaningless.
“Once he resigns, the position is empty,” Nembang says, “The language he has used is not important.”
