The Supreme Court has issued an interim order not to implement the decision to use the English language on embossed number plates.
On Sunday, a joint bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Mahesh Sharma Paudel issued the interim order staying the decision.
The court's order states: "In light of the relevant constitutional and legal provisions, an interim order has been issued to not implement or cause to be implemented the work of making embossed number plates in the English language as per the Department of Transport Management's notice dated August 19, 2025."
On August 5, 2025, a thematic committee meeting chaired by the minister for physical infrastructure and transport decided to make embossed number plates mandatory. Subsequently, the Department of Transport Management issued a notice on August 19 stating that embossed number plates would be made in the English language.
Following the decision to use English on embossed number plates, several advocates, including Ram Bahadur Raut, filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court on December 31. On January 1, a bench of Justice Nityananda Pandeya issued a show-cause order to the defendants.
Sunday's bench, however, decided to issue an interim order, citing constitutional and legal grounds. The order notes that Article 32 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to language and culture, and that Article 7(1) stipulates that the Nepali language written in the Devanagari script shall be the language of official work in Nepal.
The order also cites Article 7(3), which states that other matters regarding language shall be as decided by the government based on the recommendation of the Language Commission. Furthermore, it quotes Article 1, emphasizing that it shall be the duty of every person to uphold the Constitution.
Prior to a decision on writ petition 074-WO-0554 by the Constitutional Bench on December 13, 2019, the Vehicle and Transport Management Act had specified that letters and numbers on embossed number plates of vehicles should be in English. However, the act was amended on April 27, 2023.
The amended legal provision states that the letters and numbers on embossed number plates should be in the Devanagari script, English, or a mix of both, as decided by the Nepal government. This was also published in the Nepal Gazette.
The court order notes that the amended legal provision grants first priority to the Devanagari script for the characters on embossed number plates.
Furthermore, the Language Commission had decided on August 17, 2025, to use the Devanagari script for electronic symbol numbers and had drawn the government's attention to this matter.
The apex court issued the interim order, stating that despite the previous decisions, the Department of Transport Management issued a notice to make number plates in English, which the court ruled was contrary to constitutional and legal provisions.
