The Supreme Court therefore disqualified Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane from being a member of the House of Representatives

The constitutional bench of Supreme Court has made a historic verdict to revoke the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane as a member of the House of Representatives because he is not a Nepali citizen.

Since Minister Lamichhane is no longer a member of parliament, he has lost his right to be a minister and party president according to the Constitution of Nepal, the Nepali Citizenship Act and Regulations and the constitution of the Rastriya Swatantra party.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Harikrishna Karki and Justices Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Dr Anand Mohan Bhattarai and Anil Kumar Sinha issued the verdict on Friday.

Advocate Rabiraj Basaula also filed a public interest writ petition against Lamichhane with the demand that he is unfit to be a member of parliament.

After Rabi Lamichhane renounced his American citizenship, he  did not complete the process of re-establishing his Nepali citizenship properly, so he could not be a candidate for the position of a member of the House of Representatives or be elected to that position.

Since he was not eligible to run for the position of Member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan District, Constituency No. 2, he ran as a candidate and was also elected.  and according to Article 137, Ilsal ruled that the deportation order will be void.

According to the order of the Supreme Court, Rabi Lamichhane obtained a certificate of Nepali citizenship in the year 2050 on the basis of his descendants.

Similarly, it has been mentioned in the Supreme Court’s order that there is no dispute that he took American citizenship on 2070 (2014)  and then gave notice to the American embassy in Nepal for the purpose of renouncing his American citizenship in 2075 based on the information dated 2075-3-14.

It is said in the order that he has not completed the process according to Section 11 of Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 and Rule 11 of Nepal Citizenship Regulations, 2063 to restore Nepali citizenship.

Article 13 of the Constitution of Nepal provides that the acquisition, recovery and termination of citizenship shall be governed by federal law.

It is further stated in the order that Nepali Citizenship Act, 2063 section 10 states that there is a clear provision that Nepali citizenship will not be maintained if one voluntarily takes foreign citizenship or does not choose Nepali citizenship in the case of being a citizen of Nepal and a foreign country at the same time.

After taking citizenship of a foreign country, Nepali citizenship does not remain. Nepali citizenship does not remain in both the cases of voluntarily taking the citizenship of a foreign country or relinquishing Nepali citizenship. In such a case, it is mentioned in the order that to regain the Nepali citizenship, the process prescribed by the law must be completed.

In Section 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063, “It seems that there is a provision that if a Nepali citizen, after obtaining the citizenship of a foreign country, re-immigrants to Nepal and gives the certificate of relinquishing the citizenship of the foreign country to the designated authority, his Nepali citizenship will be restored from the date of registration of such certificate.

However, Lamichhane duly informed the relevant officer (Chief District Officer) that he had renounced his American citizenship and went to the citizenship issuing office in accordance with the procedure prescribed in accordance with Sections 10 and 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 and Rule 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Regulations, 2063. It is mentioned in the unseen order that the application has been completed.

He also did not deny that the above process was adopted. It is mentioned in the order that a person in this condition cannot be considered as eligible to be a candidate for the purposes of Article 87 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal and Section 12 of the House of Representatives Election Act, 2074.

The bench said that the information of the order should be conveyed to Lamichhane immediately and the full text of the order would be prepared later.