KATHMANDU, JANUARY 16Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane has actually submitted his written reply to the Supreme Court in response to the cases filed versus him challenging his election to the House of Representatives. Home Minister Lamichhane requests Nirmala Kurmis activists to stop demonstration House Minister Lamichhane vows to work for uplift of Tharu neighborhood 2 writ petitioners filed cases against Lamichhane arguing that he had obtained American citizenship and later when he renounced his American citizenship, he did not start the mandatory process of getting his Nepali citizenship restored and therefore his election needs to be nullified. The five-member constitutional bench of the pinnacle court led by Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki has listed his case for last hearing on January 25.

Yubaraj Paudel Safal, and Raviraj Basaula and Nani Babju Khatri submitted 2 writ petitions against Lamichhane challenging his election to the HoR.The petitioners pointed out Sections 10 and 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act and Rule 11 of Nepal Citizenship Regulations questioning Lamichhanes eligibility to contest HoR elections.

Lamichhane said that he had actually never renounced Nepali citizenship so the question of starting the procedure under rule 9 of Citizenship Rules to get his Nepali citizenship restored did not arise.Relevant citizenship arrangements specify that if a Nepali citizen renounces Nepali citizenship to obtain citizenship of another country, he ought to send his/her application in an authorized format with the receipt of the renouncement of his/her foreign citizenship.

As I never ever renounced my Nepali citizenship, this guideline must not use to me, Lamichhane mentioned in his written reply.He also stated that Citizenship Rules had not clearly provisioned the procedures for people like him to get his Nepali citizenship restored.

Mentioning that his work authorization issued by Nepali Embassy was to end on 4 October 2018, Lamichhane stated that after he started the procedure of renouncing his American passport in May 2018, he filed a petition at the Department of Immigration on 20 June 2018 looking for change of his status.He also stated that the DoI had actually sent his documents to the house ministry, Press Council Nepal, and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

He said he had actually been taking pleasure in all the rights given to a Nepali person from the date he renounced his American passport.On the problem of Lamichhane obtaining Nepali citizenship in 2015, he stated that since that problem had nothing do with eligibility for candidateship, he did not want to mention anything about the passport that was not used.

Lamichhane said that the courts and federal government attorneys office had treated him as a Nepali person when he was named an offender in the abetment to suicide case and hence the claims of the writ petitioners were baseless.He also said that the Election Commission had likewise reversed a petition filed versus his candidateship.

He argued that according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, nobody could be rendered stateless.He also stated that his case was being examined by the authorities and the court did not have a factor to captivate the writ petitions submitted versus him.Stating that he was member of various organisations, Lamichhane said he had actually acquired his marital relationship certificate, several identity files, consisting of PAN card and citizen ID card which meant that Nepal had actually already accepted him as a Nepali citizen.In the parliamentary elections hung on November 20, Lamichhane won from Chitwan Constituency No 2 with a substantial margin and his party, in its maiden effort, won 20 seats in the Lower House of the Parliament.The petitioners argued that Lamichhane did not start legal process of getting his Nepali citizenship brought back after renouncing his American citizenship in 2018.

Safal mentioned in his petition that Lamichhane, who had gotten his Nepali citizenship on 22 February 1994, obtained United States citizenship on 21 February 2014 and United States passport on 5 March 2014.

He renounced his American passport on 28 June 2018, but did not initiate the process of getting his Nepali citizenship brought back as mandated by Section 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act and Rule 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Regulations.The petitioners had prompted the court to revoke Lamichhanes membership of the HoR and the RSP, as well as his status of RSP chair.Safal also prompted the court to purchase Kathmandu District Administration to punish Lamichhane for submitting incorrect files to contest elections.A variation of this short article appears in the print on January 16, 2023, of The Himalayan Times .

This post first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com