SC annuls Lamichhane’s lawmaker post

By Liladhar Upadhyaya

Kathmandu, Jan. 28: The Supreme Court on Friday invalidated the post of Member of the House of Representatives of Rabi Lamichhane, who was also serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs in the incumbent government.

In response to writ petitions filed at the SC challenging validity of Lamichhane’s citizenship, a Constitutional Bench chaired by Acting Chief Justice Hari Krisha Karki decided to annul the processes of making him as candidate in the election, declaring him as election winner, awarding him the certificate of winner and other related works. 

President of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Lamichhane was elected as member of the HoR of the Federal Parliament from Chitwan Constituency-2 under FPTP category. 

Invoking the Article 133 (2), (3) and Article 137 of the Constitution of Nepal, the Supreme Court stated that defendant Lamichhane was not found following the legal procedure to regain Nepal’s citizenship once he renounced it to get the  citizenship of the United States of America. He was not found to be able to become candidate from Chitwan-2, the Bench comprised of justices Bishwombhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Dr. Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Anil Kumar Shinha said in the order.  

He was found of informing the concerned Chief District Officer about renouncement of the American citizenship while he was not found following due legal process to regain the citizenship under the Clause 10 and 11 of the Citizenship Act 2063 BS and other rules and guidelines relating to citizenship, the Bench stated.

 He has also not taken plea before the bench for following the process to acquire new citizenship as the process fixed by laws and Rule No. 11 of the Citizenship Rule 2063, the order read. 

The Supreme Court stated that defendant Lamichhane was not found following the legal procedure to regain Nepal’s citizenship once he renounced it to get the  citizenship of the USA. 

In this context, Lamichhane is not eligible to become the candidate in the HoR election under the Article 87 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal and Clause 12 of the House of Representatives Election Act 2017, the bench stated in the order.  

Lamichhane had acquired Nepali citizenship in 2050 BS (1994) under decent category and subsequently had acquired citizenship of the USA in 2014. Meanwhile, he admitted that he had informed the Embassy of  the USA in Nepal about renouncement of the American citizenship in 2018. 

 Nepal’s law has provisioned about acquiring and reacquiring the citizenship and his/her citizenship is deemed void if he/she gained citizenship of a foreign country. In this condition he/she should follow the legal procedure to regain the citizenship. However, Lamichhane, a journalist by profession, was not found following these all necessary requirements to regain the citizenship of Nepal, the order  stated. 

Following the order of the SC, all the activities related to becoming Nepal’s lawmaker have been automatically declared null and void and his post of the DPM and Minister for Home Affairs has been scrapped. 

Advocate Rabiraj Basaula and Yubaraj Paudel had filed separate writ petitions challenging the validity of Lamichhane’s citizenship. 

Lamichhane was elected to the post of the member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan Constituency-2  by garnering 49,300 votes in the election held on November 20, 2022.

He had defeated his rival candidates by the biggest margin of 34,312 votes in the election. His closest rival Umesh Shrestha of the Nepali Congress had received 14,988 votes and UML’s Krishna Bhakta Pokharel 14,652 vote.

Lamichhane’s party emerged as the fourth largest party in the election although it was formed only in June 2022. The party led by him won seven seats, four in Kathmandu, two in Chitwan and one in Lalitpur under the First-Past-The-Post election category while 13 lawmakers were elected under the proportional representation (PR) system.

Lamichhane was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs on December 26. But he lost the post in 32 days after the Supreme Court gave a verdict that he did not possess a valid citizenship of Nepal.   

After the order of the SC, Lamichhane said, he was not a citizen of any country.

 “I am not even the president of RSP led by me now,”Lamichhane said while speaking to journalists outside the Home Ministry.

 Lamichhane said that he was now not a citizen of any country and would welcome the Supreme Court verdict.  

“I welcome and abide by the order of the Apex Court. I have no answer now. I am not a citizen of any country,” he said.