The Supreme Court on Friday issued show cause notices to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), demanding reasons for the cause of ongoing load shedding across the country.

Acting upon a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Bhupendra Prasad Pokhrel on Thursday challenging the NEA’s decision to impose 17 hours of load-shedding every week, a single bench of Justice Pawn Kumar Ojha issued the order.

The bench has also put the case on its priority list for hearing. The bench, however, did not issue a stay order as demanded by the petitioner.

The petitioner had sought an apex court order to nullify the Nepal Electricity Authority’s notices issued to inform about the 17-hour power outage.

“The authorities do not have the right to cut off power once they have distributed electricity lines as per the Electricity Act, Nepal Electricity Authority Act and Regulation,” the petitioner claimed.

The petition claims that load shedding was been enforced against clause 19 of NEA Act 2049 and clause 23 of NEA Act 2041.

NEA is enforcing load shedding 17 hours a week across the country, citing shortage of electricity.