President refuses to authenticate Citizenship Amendment Bill

The 15-day timeline given to the President by the Constitution for certification expired at Tuesday midnight.

President Bhandari

NL Today

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Kathmandu: The Bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 BS that was endorsed twice by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly has not been certified within the stipulated time.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota had certified the amendment bill on September 5 and sent it to President Bidya Devi Bhandari for authentication.

The 15-day timeline given to the President by the Constitution for certification expired at midnight on Tuesday.

Chief personal secretary of the President, Bhesh Raj Adhikari said that the bill was not certified as of midnight.

Article 113 (4) of the Nepal Constitution has enshrined a provision that the President should compulsorily certify the bill when it was sent to the President twice for authentication.

Earlier, both the Houses of the Federal Parliament had sent the bill to the President for certification on August 1 for the first time. The President had sent back the bill to the parliament with an eight-point message noting it required reconsideration from the parliament as per the constitution.

Then, both the Houses of parliament endorsed the bill a second time without making any changes.

According to Article 113 (4) of the Constitution, if the President sends back any bill with the message and if both the Houses reconsider the bill, pass it, and present it again to the President, the Head of State shall authenticate that Bill within fifteen days of such presentation.