7.4 Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1959 (2015 BS)

The first democratic constitution: justiciable fundamental rights, a bicameral parliament, an elected government under the crown — granted (not made) by the king on the eve of the first general election. The 1959 election gave B.P . Koirala's Nepali Congress an overwhelming majority; the first popularly elected government took office. The document's fatal flaw: the crown's reserve powers — emergency, suspension and dismissal powers loose enough for the 1960 royal coup, which dismissed the Koirala government, suspended the constitution's democratic core and imprisoned its leadership. Eighteen months of parliamentary democracy — the lesson every later constitution-maker wrote down: rights without locked limits on the head of state are rights on loan.