SC to hear writ petition filed against President Bhandari

The Supreme Court of Nepal on Friday will hear the writ petitions filed against President Bidhya Devi Bhandari against her decision not to authenticate the Citizenship Bill.

"The hearing is set to start from today," confirmed Supreme Court spokesperson, Bimal Paudel.

Notably, five separate writ petitions were filed on Thursday against the Office of the President over which a joint hearing would start from today.

Advocate Sagar Baral has filed the writ petition with a student from Tribhuwan University Raj Baral and Kathmandu School of Law Abinesh Adhikari and a resident of Morang's Rangel Municipality Dev Sharma.

In the writ petition, the petitioners have claimed President Bhandari of not fulfilling the constitutional obligation as per Act 113 (4) of the Constitution of Nepal seeking a mandamus from the apex court.

The petitioners also have claimed that the President doesn't have the right of discretion as per the constitution and also have asked the verdict from the court over the case to be set as precedent.

In the registered petition, it also is claimed that the latest decision of the President has also jolted the fundamental human rights ensured by the constitution in Articles 10-15.

Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday midnight passed the deadline for authenticating Citizenship Bill sent by the Federal Parliament.

The Constitution of Nepal -2072 only gives the timeframe of 15 days to the President to authenticate the bill. The controversial citizenship bill was sent to the president by the then Speaker of the house Agni Prasad Sapkota for the second time on September 5.

Therefore, as mentioned in Article 113, Sub-section 4 of the Constitution, the President had to certify it if the same Bill was submitted for authentication for the second time.

"If the President returns a bill with a message, both Houses will reconsider such a bill and if such a bill is passed as presented or resubmitted with amendments, the President will certify it within fifteen days of its submission," according to the Constitution.

Earlier on August 14, President Bhandari returned the Citizenship Bill passed by the House of Representatives and the National Assembly and sent for authentication.

Even though the President returned the Bill to the House for reconsideration, the House of Representatives and the National Assembly made no changes to the Bill.