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.

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.