The Division Bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana and Justice Kumar Regmi has ordered to start the hearing of all petitions related to Nijgadh International Airport in the Supreme Court’s full bench.

After hearing the petition filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma, the bench ordered to start the hearing of two separate petitions in full bench consisting of five justice.

Sharma filed a petition in August 10 demanding an interim order to scrap incomplete Environment Impact Assessment Report and mandamus for protection of trees and natural habitat of Nijgadh.

Earlier, the bench issued interim order in a petition filed by former secretary Dr. Dwarikanath Dhungel, Sukdev Khatri, Senior advocates Krishna Prasad Bhandari and others not to clear the trees of environment and stop all activities.

In their petition, they demanded an order to scrap the project and save the forest and habitat of endangered animals. According to them, over 90 million plants need to clear from Nijgadh to construct the airport.

The petitioners knocked the door of the court after minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai announced to start the clearance of forest from end of December 2019.

After hearing in petition, a single bench of Supreme Court headed by Tanka Bahadur Moktan issued an interim order and asked both the parties to plead their case on 6 December 2019.

The court fixed February 19 as date for the next hearing for the case in full bench.