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The suspended Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Maha Prasad Adhikari filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday challenging the decision of the Council of Ministers to suspend him.

Spokesperson at the SC, Bimal Poudel, confirmed that Adhikari’s writ petition was registered at the SC.

In his petition, Adhikari has sought to scrap the government’s decision to form a committee to probe into him without prior information and seeking clarification.

A hearing on the petition would be conducted on Tuesday.

The government has formed a panel under the leadership of former SC Justice Purushottam Bhandari to probe into Adhikari, leading to his suspension from the central bank’s governor.

Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a massive steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port, Associated Press reported.

The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless 7-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.

Capturing the southern city would also allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets.

As its missiles and rockets slammed into other parts of the country, Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is laced with tunnels.

Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the city’s patrol police, told Mariupol television on Sunday. He said they are hiding from Russian shelling, and from any occupying Russian soldiers, according to the Associated Press.

Moscow had given the defenders a midday deadline to surrender and “keep their lives,” but the Ukrainians rejected it, as they’ve done with previous ultimatums.

“We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC’s “This Week.” He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender.”

As for besieged Mariupol, there appeared to be little hope Sunday of military rescue by Ukrainian forces anytime soon. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the remaining Ukrainian troops and civilians in Mariupol are basically encircled. He said they “continue their struggle,” but that the city effectively doesn’t exist anymore because of massive destruction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent Easter greetings via Twitter, saying: “The Lord’s Resurrection is a testimony to the victory of life over death, good over evil.”

If Mariupol falls, Russian forces there are expected to join an all-out offensive in the coming days for control of the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is bent on capturing after failing in its bid to take Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, Associated Presa reported.

The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians’ estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.

An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war.

“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum.

Drone footage carried by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti showed towering plumes of smoke over the steel complex, which sits on the outskirts of the bombed-out city, on the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine” as Russian troops prepare for battle in the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, according to the Associated Press.

Russian forces, meanwhile, carried out aerial attacks near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraine’s military capacity ahead of the anticipated assault.

After the humiliating sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last week in what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, the Kremlin had vowed to step up strikes on the capital, Associated Presa reported.

The election symbols for the local level elections have been fixed and included in the ballot paper. The elections of 753 local levels across the country is taking place on May 13. 

The Election Commission stated that the election symbols for the six nationally-recognized political parties have been fixed based on the number of votes they garnered towards the proportional election system in the election to the House of Representatives in 2017. 

In that election, the CPN-UMal bagged 3 million 173 thousand 494 votes, the Nepali Congress 3 million128 thousand 389 votes, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 1 million 303 thousand 721 votes and the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal 942 thousand 455 votes.

The parties that participated in the 2017 House of Representatives election towards the proportional election system, which have registered with the Election Commission for the local level election and are active in the district will be allocated the same election symbol they had been allocated before although they have not got the recognition as  national party. 

Election Commission spokesperson Shaligram Sharma said that the Commission has decided to include the election symbols of such political parties in the ballot paper of the districts concerned for the purpose of the local level elections.

Of the 79 political parties contesting in the local level elections, six parties are recognized as the national parties while 23 parties have participated in the election before this.

 Likewise, 40 political parties have got approval from the Election Commission to contest the elections this time.

The ruling coalition has decided to finalize the candidates of the metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities across the country by tomorrow.

A meeting of the senior leaders of the alliance held in Baluwatar this morning made the decision to this effect.

Similarly, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal's Secretariat said that the meeting has decided to take the reports on the situation of the coalition and preparations for the elections in the remaining provinces tomorrow itself.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal among other senior leaders were present in the meeting.

The government has decided to hold the local level elections on May 13.