Lawyers’ appeal

KATHMANDU: Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum has appealed to the government to allow entry of hundreds of Nepali citizens, who are being stranded on the Nepal-India border due to nationwide lockdown imposed by both the countries amid COV- ID-19 outbreak.

Issuing a press release on Friday, Advocates Raju Prasad Chapagai and Ananta Raj Luitel, who are chairperson and general secretary of the Forum, respectively warned that Nepali citizens were in desperate situation at the Indian side of the border after the government barred them from returning to their country.

“We call on the government to comply with Article 45 of the constitution and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nepal is a party,” read the release. Article 45 of the constitution guarantees right against exile and the ICCPR states that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his/her own country.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 04, 2020 of the Himalayan Times.