Nepal’s cabinet recommended to President Bidhya Devi Bandhari to call the winter session of the upper house of the National Assembly from January 1 next year, The Himalayan Times reported.

Earlier, the government had abruptly ended the budget session on July 2. And the legal provisions in Nepal require the government to call the next session within six months of the last session. Thus the government of Nepal is bound to call the session on, or before, January 1 next year.

Months of infighting in the ruling Nepali Communist Party led Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to recommend the dissolution of the lower house of the parliament on 20 December. This will be the first session after the dissolution.

Under present circumstances, the upper house will have a very limited role, and no new law could be enacted by the parliament, said Dasharath Dhamala, the assistant spokesperson of the parliament secretariat.

The upper house can still pass the bills already sent by the lower house, but in case it wants some changes in the bills that couldn’t be done in the absence of the lower house, said a senior advocate Ram Narayan Bidari.