CONTENTS S. No. Writ No. Decision/ Order Date, Publication No. Name of Plaintiff and Defendant Case Details Summary of the decision Page No. 1 Writ No. 3021 of the Year 2061 May 15, 2006 Dil Bahadur Bishwokarma V Government of Nepal It is urged to issue an order to the Ministry of Local Development and local bodies under it to provide recommendation for citizenship certificate and concerned officials to provide recommendation based on surname (family name) if application is filed for it. It is also urged to issue Mandamus and other necessary order in the name of His Majesty’s Government, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Parliament to formulate necessary law for providing citizenship certificate on the basis of surname (family name). Although there is clear provision in the law to issue citizenship certificates based on surname (family name) and circular has also been issued accordingly, it has been obvious from the example presented by the petitioners that sometimes citizenship certificates have also been issued mentioning caste/race. Going through the Article 11 (1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, there is constitutional provision that-(1) all citizens shall be equal before the law, and no person shall be denied equal protection of the law. Likewise, in Article 11(3) it is provided that the State shall not make discrimination against citizens among citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, tribe, sex, origin, language or ideological conviction or any of these. Thus, in the condition that the constitution and laws have guaranteed the right to equal protection to all castes and tribes, to mention caste/race in the place of surname (family name) or after surname (family name) while providing citizenship certificate to Dalits without any reason and objectives, is against the objective and spirit of the law. Therefore, an order of Mandamus is hereby issued in the name of respondent bodies, to make or cause to make provision for issuing citizenship certificate or making correction thereon or providing recommendation for obtaining thereto, based on surname (family name), to the people of Dalit communities, like other citizens, while issuing citizenship certificate, making correction thereon or recommending thereto; and make or cause to make correction in the citizenship certificate mentioning the surname (family name) pursuant to law. 1 2 Writ No of the year 2063WS-0089 N.K.P. 2065, No. 11, Decision No. 8035, Pg. 1340, April 16, 2008 Nakkali Maharjan V Office of the PM and Council of Ministers Article 9(1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990 and Section 3 of Nepal Citizenship Act, 1963 have provided that a person shall be deemed to be the citizens of Nepal by descent if his or her father or mother was a citizen of Nepal at his or her birth. Therefore, it is the matter of choice of a woman to obtain the citizenship either from the name of her father or her husband; however, women have been deprived from this right in practice. In this case, from the written response of the respondent Kirtipur Municipality it has been accepted that Kirtipur Municipality has denied to make recommendation to the petitioner for obtaining citizenship in the name of father as it has been obvious from the case file. In such a situation the petitioner has been discriminated on the ground of sex/gender and marital status and by denying her recommendation depriving her from obtaining citizenship certificate violating the provision of the above mentioned International Conventions, the provisions of Article 8(2) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007 and Section 3(1) of Nepal Treaty Act, 2006 that “ A person born at the time when his/her father or mother is a citizen of Nepal, shall be a citizen of Nepal by descent. Such act of Kirtipur Municipality denying the petitioner to make recommendation cannot be held legal. Therefore, the writ of mandamus is hereby issued in the 13