Look at the workings of the two documents given below. The first column is from the 1990 Nepal Constitution. The second column is from the more recent Interim Constitution of Nepal.
1990: Constitution of Nepal Part 7: Executive | 2007 Interim Constitution Part 5: Executive |
Article 35: Executive Power: The executive power of the kingdom of Nepal shall be vested in His Majesty and the Council of the Ministers. | Article 37: Executive Power: The executive power of Nepal shall be vested in the Council of Ministers. |
What is the difference in who exercises ‘Executive Power’ in the above two Constitutions of Nepal? Keeping this in mind, why do you think Nepal needs a new Constitution today?
- In the first example; the executive power is shared by the King and the Council of Ministers. But in second example; the executive power has become the sole right of the Council of Ministers. Nepal has been undergoing transition from a monarchy to a democracy.
Nepal needs a new constitution today because it is no longer a monarchy. The older constitution vested power in the king, but when the country is now a democracy, a new constitution is needed to reflect the “democratic” ideals of Nepal that peoples’ movement desired and fought for. In order to achieve this, all its constitutive rules must be changed.