The Citizenship Bill that President Ram Chandra Paudel approved has been temporarily suspended by the Supreme Court.
Upon hearing the writ petitions submitted on Sunday by senior attorneys Surendra Bhandari and Bal Krishna Neupane, Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma, sitting alone, ordered a temporary injunction against implementing the Citizenship Bill that had been approved by President Paudel.
The apex court has called both sides for the discussion.
The government has already published the Citizenship Bill in the Nepal gazette.
Earlier on Friday, senior advocate Bhandari and Neupane had registered separate writs against the authentication of the bill.
The writs were filed at the Supreme Court after President Paudel certified the controversial Citizenship Bill on Wednesday.
On August 15, 2022, President Bidya Devi Bhandari had returned this very Bill to the House of Representatives for a review, in accordance with a constitutional provision, 15 days after its submission for authentication after endorsement from the House of Representatives and the National Assembly on July 22 and July 28, respectively.
But the Parliament had again sent the legal instrument to the President’s Office for authentication without incorporating presidential concerns. Subsequently, President Bhandari kept the Bill on hold, courting controversy with a section of the legal fraternity pointing that it was a breach of authority on the part of the head of the state.
Amid a continuing controversy, the country went for federal and provincial elections on November 20, 2022 and a new Parliament took shape along with new governments and a new President.
This meant the expiry of the old Bill, per experts. But the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led coalition government chose to press ahead with the same Bill and got an express seal of approval, without the President bothering to send it back to the HoR for review.
When the then President Bhandari refused to authenticate this Bill, some parties accused her of violating the Constitution.
Later, the government chose to submit the Bill to the President instead of tabling it to the House of Representatives or the National Assembly for approval. Subsequently, the President authenticated it.
Meanwhile, the main opposition CPN-UML obstructed the Parliament meeting today over the authentication of the bill.
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