In setback for Balen, Nepal SC stays ban on student politics, trade unions

NEW DELHI: Nepal Supreme Court has stayed PM Balendra Shah govt’s decisions to dissolve civil service trade unions and student organisations in universities, handing Shah the sharpest legal setback in his first 45 days in office over measures that were pushed through ordinances.

The twin SC orders came amid street protests by employee and student groups days after the country's top court also restrained govt from evicting landless squatters and informal settlers without due process and rehabilitation safeguards.





Shah defended the measures in a social media post, saying, “Banning party flags in schools and bureaucracy will not seize the rights of students and employees, but strengthen professional freedoms.” He said the move aimed to end partisan influence in education and bureaucracy, where student and employee organisations had become “sleeper cells” of political parties, and added that transfers and promotions should be guided by procedure, competence and delivery, not party affiliation.

Employee and student leaders rejected this argument. Uttam Katwal, chairman of Nepal Civil Service Employees’ Association, said it was wrong to describe registered trade unions as party-based bodies. “We are not party-based trade unions; we are civil servants working as the permanent govt, having taken an oath in the name of the state,” he said.

Student leaders also said govt should regulate campus politics rather than abolish student bodies. Lokesh Kumar Khadka, president of Free Student Union at Ratna Rajyalaxmi Campus, said, “All the student unions condemn this decision; this is completely wrong.” He accused Shah of showing a “dictatorial nature” by denying space for political ideology in universities. Samic Badal, former chairman of All Nepal National Free Students Union (UML), said, “Cutting off the neck is not a cure for dandruff on the scalp.”

Majid Ansari, a Gen Z activist and final-year law student who petitioned in the eviction case, told TOI reforms must focus on ordinary citizens. “Laws should be made delivery-oriented and state authorities should be restructured from the ordinary people’s point of view. Overall reform is about easing governance and making public services accessible,” he said.

Meanwhile, eviction drives have been central to Shah’s politics since his tenure as Kathmandu mayor, when his administration repeatedly used bulldozers to clear settlements and structures it described as encroachments. As PM, he revived that approach through a nationwide anti-encroachment push, but landless groups and rights activists said the govt had moved against some of Nepal’s poorest residents without proper identification, consultation or a credible rehabilitation plan. Experts from the UN and several human rights organisations -- including Amnesty -- have criticised the eviction campaigns.

Another Gen Z activist and lawyer Tanuja Pandey, who was among petitioners against the eviction drive, told TOI, “We have filed a petition saying that the decision to remove the squatters without consulting the affected families and providing safe rehabilitation is illegal.” He criticised the bulldozer action, saying poor people living under tarpaulins along riverbanks were being branded “illegal squatters,” while ministers and lawmakers occupying public land and running businesses through political influence are the “real squatters.”
45-days 'Balen-ce sheet'

• Civil service employees protested ordinance-backed move to dissolve trade unions

• Student groups hit streets against order to scrap campus political organisations

• Landless squatters and informal settlers protested bulldozer evictions from riverbanks and public land

• Border traders and shoppers protested stricter customs checks on Indian goods above NPR 100

• Home minister Sudan Gurung quit amid wealth scrutiny and public pressure

• Labour minister Dipak Kumar Sah was dismissed over nepotism allegations

• Opposition attacked ordinance route after 8 ordinances reached Parliament

• 1,200 political appointees were removed, triggering administrative disruption