The Supreme Court (SC) has raised the issue of passport of Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane in the full text of its verdict ruling him to be ineligible to become lawmaker.
The constitutional bench including Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki, and Justices Bishwambhar Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Anil Kumar Sinha in their verdict on January 27 had reasoned that Lamichhane was ineligible to become lawmaker as he did not complete the process to re-acquire his citizenship certificate that became invalid after he acquired US citizenship.
Full text of the verdict has been made public now. The full text has raised the issue of passport dispute as well and stated that it should be resolved as per the prevailing laws of the land. “This issue seems to have to be resolved immediately through the prevailing laws in accordance to the provision related to acquiring passport or travel permission by submitting false details as per the Passport Act, 1967, and the current Passport Act, 2019,” the bench has stated.
The SC has recognized that the written response furnished by the Home Ministry and the Kathmandu District Administration Office in the case reveal that the issue of Lamichhane’s passport is currently under investigation and stated that the bench need not further talk about the issue as it is not related to his eligibility to become candidate in the election.
One’s Nepali citizenship becomes invalid as soon as one acquires foreign citizenship. Writ petitioners raised questions that Lamichhane obtained a Nepali passport on the basis of his invalid citizenship in 2015 even after acquiring US citizenship in 2014.
