KATHMANDU: Sherpa Climber Pemba Dorje has been stripped of his Guiness World Record title as the fastest Everest summiteer after the Supreme Court annulled his claim in lack of adequate and substantial evidences. A joint bench of Justices Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and Dambar Bahadur Shahi had issued a verdict last November to quash the government’s decision, saying Pemba Dorje Sherpa of Rolwaling, Dolakha, failed to produce substantial proof to authenticate his claim of climbing the world’s highest peak in eight hours and 10 minutes on 21 May, 2004. It was learnt that the mountaineering division under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation issued a summit certificate to Sherpa without verifying his claims as per the Tourism Act and the Mountaineering Regulation. Following the decision, Lakpa Gelu Sherpa, who has claimed the summit record with a time of 10 hours and 56 minutes in 2003, stands as the fastest Everest summiteer.   Lakpa Gelu Sherpa had filed a case at SC against MoCTCA, Pemba Dorje and two others in December, 2013. The Department of Tourism of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had written to Lakpa Gelu informing him of the Supreme Court's decision. 'After long 14 years Nepal Supreme Court finally gave my world record title back on January 22, 2018,' Lakpa Gelu expressed relief. 'However, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Department of Tourism took another year for final decision, just for one page approval paper,' stated Sherpa. 'Finally, as of today, the record has been handed to me which should have been done 14 years back.' The summit time is generally counted once a climber leaves from the base camp for the summit and returns. Many veteran climbers considered that climbing Mt Everest in eight or 10 hours was a mere joke.