He has not only lost his seat in the Parliament, but also the posts of DPM and home minister
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 27
The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court today barred Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane from office for failing to regain citizenship after giving up his US passport.
The apex court invalidated his election to the House of Representatives, ruling that since he did not meet legal procedures to get his Nepali citizenship restored he was not qualified to contest parliamentary election, which he did from Chitwan's Constituency No 2.
The five-member constitutional bench led by Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki delivered a unanimous verdict invalidating the Election Commission's decision to let Lamichhane contest parliamentary election and declare him winner from Chitwan-2.
The SC verdict is in response to cases filed by Yubaraj Paudel 'Safal', Raviraj Basaula, and Nani Babu Khatri against Lamichhane.
Petitioners had argued that Lamichhane was not a Nepali citizen and his election to the HoR should be declared null and void.
With the court's decision, Lamichhane has lost not only his seat in the House of Representatives, but also the posts of deputy prime minister and home minister. The decision is also a blow to his party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, whichhad witnessed a meteoric rise within a few months of its formation, winning 20 seats in the 275-member HoR, riding on his popularity.
The court observed that the citizenship of a Nepali does not remain valid if s/he voluntarily renounces it or receives citizenship of another country.
"In such a situation the mandatory legal process must be fulfilled to get one's citizenship restored," the SC observed.
The court said Lamichhane did not write an application in a prescribed format to the concerned chief district officer to inform him of his step to renounce foreign citizenship nor did he fulfil the mandatory process of getting his citizenship restored by the citizenship issuing authority as stipulated in sections 10, 11 of the Nepal Citizenship Act and Rule 11 of Citizenship Rules.
The court said for that reason Lamichhane did not qualify to contest parliamentary election under Section 12 of the House of Representatives Electoral Act. Since he did not qualify to contest HoR election, his HoR membership was also invalid, the SC observed.
"Since Lamichhane did not qualify to contest the election, decisions to validate his candidacy and declare him winner, and the issuance of winner certificate to him are hereby quashed," the SC observed.
Lamichhane had obtained Nepali citizenship on 22 February 1994, became a US citizen on 5 March 2014, and re-nounced his American passport on 28 June 2018.
The bench said that petitioners were well within their rights to file the case that required adjudication of whether or not Lamichhane had the qualification to enjoy his legal and political rights.
The SC also stated that Article 137 (2) of the constitution granted it the power to adjudicate cases involving the parlia- File photo courtesy: Facebook mentary elections.
The other four members of the constitutional bench that issued the verdict against Lamichhane are justices Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, and Anil Kumar Sinha. The court will prepare full text of the verdict later.
Senior advocates Surendra Bhandari and Amita LaxmiShrestha and advocates Raman Kumar Karna, Amrit Kharel, Nikita Dhungana, Kirtinath Sharma, and Santosh Bhandari had pleaded on behalf of petitioners. Joint Attorney Sanjeeb Kumar Regmi, senior advocates Sushil Kumar Panta, Sunil Pokharel, and Narendra Prasad Gautam were among the lawyers who pleaded on behalf of Lamichhane.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 28, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
