President Bhandari’s refusal to certify the Citizenship Bill for the second time

The Bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 that was endorsed twice by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly had not been certified within the stipulated time.
Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota had certified the amendment bill on September 5 (Monday) and sent it to President Bidya Devi Bhandari for authentication.

The 15-day timeline given to the President by the Constitution for certification expired at 12.00 midnight Tuesday.

Chief personal secretary of the President, Bhesh Raj Adhikari told that the bill was not certified as of 12.00 midnight.

Article 113 (4) of the Nepal Constitution has enshrined a provision that the President should compulsorily certify the bill when it was sent to the President twice for authentication.

Earlier, both the Houses of the Federal Parliament had sent the bill to the President for certification on August 1 for the first time. The President had sent back the bill to the parliament with an eight-point message noting it required reconsideration from the parliament as per the constitution.

Then, both the Houses of the parliament had endorsed the bill a second time without making any changes. According to the Article 113 (4) of the Constitution, if the President sends back any bill with the message and if both the Houses reconsiders the bill as it was presented or with amendments and pass it and present it again to the President, the bill shall be certified by the President presents before the Head of the State, the President should authenticate the bill within 15 days of re-submission within 15 days of the submission.

There has been wider public concern as to what would happen to the bill when it was not certified a second time as per the constitution and the ongoing session of the House of Representatives was also concluded.