Samdrupjongkhar dzongkhag administration terminated Wangphu gewog mangmi from his office last week as per the Larger Bench of the High Court’s (HC) judgement.

Wangphu Gup Sangay Tenzin said although the dzongkhag administration issued a termination letter on May 17, the gewog administration issued the termination and relieving letter on May 24.

The High Court judgment stated that the mangmi had served two terms holding the contractor license since 2011. The court then passed the judgement to terminate him within two months from the day of the judgement.

The mangmi submitted an undertaking letter to the returning officer stating that he will transfer the license to his brother’s name if he wins the election during the Local Government elections in 2011. However, he didn’t.

According to the Election Act a person at the time of filing his/her nomination as candidate for an election neither be the holder of any office of profit nor shall such a person, if elected, hold any office of profit so long as he/she continues as a Local Government member.

The judgement stated that the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) made him sign an undertaking to transfer his license within 30 days during the LG elections in 2016.” But he failed to transfer ownership of his license nor did the ECB follow up on it after he won the election.” The court also ordered the ECB to carry out their duty with due diligence.

The tendering committee for construction work in 2019 found that mangmi held a contractor license and reported the matter to the dzongkhag election office.

By Kelzang Wangchuk | Samdrupjongkhar

Edited by Tshering Palden