KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 14
Two writ petitions were filed against Chair of Rastriya Swatantra Party Rabi Lamichhane in the Supreme Court, arguing that since Lamichhane is not a citizen of Nepal he does not have the right to contest election or cast vote.
Lamichhane, who had obtained American citizenship and later renounced it, has been accused of not initiating the process of getting his Nepali citizenship restored.
Yubaraj Paudel 'Safal' and Raviraj Bataula have filed petitions against Lamichhane, the Election Commission, and others. Safal said he had challenged the registration of the Rastriya Swatantra Party in the Election Commission since its chair was not a Nepali citizen, but the EC did not take any action on his complaint. Lamichhane won parliamentary election from Chitwan-2 with a huge margin.
Safal said in his petition that Lamichhane, who had obtained his Nepali citizenship on 23 January 1994, obtained US citizenship on 21 February 2014. However, he renounced his American passport on 28 June 2018, but did not initiate the process of getting his Nepali citizenship restored as mandated by Section 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act and Rule 11 of Nepal Citizenship Regulations.
The petitioner argued that Lamichhane is not a Nepali as he did not obtain Nepali citizenship after renouncing his American citizenship.
The petitioner also said that Lamichhane submitted his old Nepali citizenship to the EC to register his political party and to contest the HoR election. The petitioner has urged the court to invalidate Lamichhane's membership of the HoR and the RSP, as well as his status of RSP chair. The petitioner also urged the court to order Kathmandu District Administration to punish Lamichhane for submitting false documents to contest elections.
Both cases will be heard by the constitutional bench of the SC on December 21, said SC Spokesperson Bimal Paudel.
RSP Vice-chair DP Aryal said the EC did not take up the citizenship issue as it was not under its jurisdiction, but since the issue was before the SC, it should leave it to the apex court.
RSP, which had fielded candidates only for parliamentary elections, won seven FPTP seats.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 15, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
