August 17: The government has adjourned the current session of the parliament from midnight of Monday, August 16, leaving the fate of 15 bills hanging on the balance. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota read out a letter from President Bidya Devi Bhandari stating the current session of both the houses of the federal parliament will end effective from August 16. 

At present, 15 bills including the budget brought by the previous government are under consideration in the parliament. Three ordinances including the Financial Ordinance, 2078, the National Debt Ordinance 2078 and the Appropriation Ordinance, 2078 have also been presented to the parliament. Failure to pass these ordinances would raise constitutional questions over the budget announced by the previous government.

According to Speaker Sapkota, various ordinances, reports of parliamentary committees and constitutional commissions were presented in the parliament.  The Parliament session had started from July 18 after the Supreme Court reinstated the House of Representatives on July 12.  Prime Minister Deuba also took a vote of confidence after the Parliament was restored.

After the Supreme Court reinstated the Parliament, only ten sessions have been completed since then. Among the ten sessions, Deuba took vote of confidence, and a few bills have only been tabled in the parliament. 

With the sudden end of the parliamentary session, fate of the ordinances related to the Covid-19 crisis management and acid attack remains uncertain. The government was reluctant to move ahead with the bills introduced by the previous government. 

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma of the Deuba government has already announced in the parliament about bringing a bill to replace the ordinance budget in line with the common minimum programme of the coalition government.