7.6 Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990 (2047 BS)

The Jana Andolan settlement: constitutional monarchy + multi-party parliamentary democracy, made by a constitution-recommendation commission and a constitutional conversation rather than granted unilaterally. Its architecture: sovereignty in the people (a first); justiciable fundamental rights; an independent judiciary with the Supreme Court's judicial-review power (the 2047 Court's era of activism — public-interest litigation's Nepali childhood, and the Court's landmark rulings on dissolved Houses and rights); a bicameral parliament and a responsible council of ministers; the constitution as the supreme law. Its stress and fall: the Maoist armed conflict from 1996; the 2002– 05 dissolution-and-appointment spiral; and the 2005 royal takeover — the monarchy's own constitution weaponised against it, delegitimising both the monarch and, ultimately, the monarchical clause of the settlement itself.