Kathmandu, September 30

The Supreme Court today refused to issue an interim order against the government as demanded by Director General of the Department of Foreign Employment Bharat Raj Subedi.

Subedi had filed a writ petition claiming that he had not reached the retirement age. While the government records show that would retire on October 1, 2015. Subedi had claimed that he was born on September 30, 1960 and hence has some more time to remain in office.

The SC said the concerned District Administration Office expressed its inability to produce duplicate citizenship certificate of the petitioner, saying the records were lost. The court said that Senior Advocate Shambhu Thapa, who pleaded on behalf of Subedi, submitted a photocopy of his citizenship certificate, which stated that Subedi had obtained his citizenship certificate on September 29, 1975 at the age of 18.

On the other hand, the Department of Civil Personnel has stated in its record that Subedi had obtained his citizenship certificate on September 29, 1975.

This means Subedi will retire from service on Thursday due to age bar. Civil servants retire at the age of 58.

A division bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha and Jagadish Sharma Paudel refused to issue an interim order arguing that if his date of birth was September 30, 1960, he had not attained the age of 16 years, a requirement for obtaining citizenship certificate. “It is beyond imagination that one can obtain citizenship without reaching 16 years of age. The petitioner lacks evidence to support his argument,” the court said.