Kathmandu, January 12

The government has issued a new order of precedence to define the hierarchy of functionaries and officials by reshuffling the previous protocol list of February 2018.

The new protocol list has placed the president, vice- president and prime minister in the first, second and third ranking order in an exclusive manner respectively. For the first time, chief justice, speaker of the House of Representatives and chairperson of the National Assembly have been ranked fourth in a row.

Earlier, chief justice was ranked fourth, and speaker of the House of Representatives and former chairperson of the National Assembly fifth in the order of precedence.

Former president, deputy prime minister, former vice-president, former prime minister and former chairperson of the Council of Ministers have been ranked fifth. Earlier, former president and deputy prime minister were ranked sixth, and former vice-president, former prime minister and former chairperson of the Council of Ministers seventh.

Governors of provinces have been jumped to rank six from previous seven.

The new provision of protocol has given a higher rank to former vice-presidents and prime ministers than that of governors of provinces. Similarly, ministers of the Government of Nepal, chief ministers of provinces, leader of opposition party, persons decorated with Nepal Ratna, former chief justice, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, deputy chairperson of the National Assembly, parliamentary leader of ruling party, former speaker of the Parliament, former speaker of the House of Representatives, former chairperson of the National Assembly, former deputy prime ministers and former ministers of the Government of Nepal have been ranked seventh in the order of precedence.

State minister of the Government of Nepal, chief whip of ruling party in the House of Representatives, chief whip of opposition party in the House of Representatives, chairpersons of various committees of the House of Representatives, chairpersons of various committees of the National Assembly, vice-chairperson of National Planning Commission, Supreme Court justice, chief of constitutional bodies and attorney general are ranked eighth.

As per the new protocol list, vice-chairperson of NPC ranks higher than the apex court justice and chiefs of constitutional bodies (National Human Rights Commission, Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority etc).

Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been ranked ahead of chief secretary of the Government of Nepal and Chief of Army Staff, albeit in a row of rank nine. The new provision have ranks from 1-21. According to the notice issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the spouse of officer-bearers will enjoy the same rank in formal functions and ceremonies.

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