Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun has commented that those with the responsibility of protecting the Constitution do not have liberty to cross the constitutional limits after the refusal of President Bidya Devi Bhandari to authenticate the Citizenship Bill that was resent to her by the House.
Issuing a statement on Wednesday Vice President Pun has called voices about violation of the Constitution by the president unfortunate. “There have been massive voices of the people that incidents developing in recent days show that the chief patron and protector of the Constitution have not been able to consciously protect and comply with the Constitution. Creation of the situation that raises these voices is very unfortunate,” the statement reads.
He has added that those with the responsibility of protecting the Constitution does not have liberty to cross the constitutional limits and urged everyone to obey and protect the Constitution remembering the commitments expressed on the Constitution Day that fell just a day before President Bhandari allowed the 15-day deadline to authenticate the bill expire.
The president’s political advisor Lal Babu Yadav informed Tuesday night that the president refused to authenticate the Citizenship Bill in order to safeguard the Constitution. The president’s office, however, did not issue any notice regarding this.
The president is constitutionally required to authenticate any bill that is resubmitted by the House after sending it back to the House for reconsideration once.
"The Bill presented to the President for certification according to this Article, shall be certified within 15 days, and both the Houses shall be informed about that as early as possible," Article 113(2) of the Constitution says about authentication of bills.
