Kathmandu: A writ petition has been presented before the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday against President Bidya Devi Bhandari for not certifying the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
Advocate Sunil Ranjit moved the apex court with the writ arguing that the President breached the constitution and parliamentary supremacy by rejecting the bill although it was mandatory for her to authenticate the bill as per the constitutional provision.
SC Spokesperson Bimal Paudel said that the court’s administration is studying the writ and will decide on registering it.
President Bhandari on Tuesday refused to endorse the Bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 BS which was endorsed twice by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly within the stipulated time.
The 15-day timeline given to the President by the Constitution for certification expired at midnight on Tuesday.
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.
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