April, 1990 and residing permanently in Nepal shall
be the citizen of Nepal by birth. Pursuant to Section
4(2) of Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006 application had
to be submitted prior to the Constituent Assembly
elections and pursuant to Section 4(3) in case
anyone is unable to submit as such due to any
special reason, he or she has to apply within 2 years
from the date of commencement of this Act, viz.
26th November, 2006, however, the petitioner has
not come into submit application within that time
limitation. Pursuant to the provision of Rule 3(6)
of Nepal Citizenship Rules, 2006 in the column of
the certificate of citizenship of the person, whose
fatherhood or motherhood has not been settled,
where the name of father or mother is to be specified
shall indicate the matter that the fatherhood or
motherhood has not been traced out and specify
the name, surname and address of the guardian.
But, the petitioner has not accepted such citizenship
certificate and even the Office cannot locate her
paternity despite various processes. Therefore,
as there is no barrier in granting her citizenship
certificate pursuant to Rule 3(6) of Nepal Citizenship
Rules, 2006 as well as Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006,
this writ petition deserves to be quashed.
international instruments to which Nepal is a party.
Therefore, necessary orders should be issued in the
name of respondents making interpretation so as to
provide citizenship to petitioner Sabina Damai and
other persons aggrieved like her.
Learned Joint Attorney Mr. Yubaraj Subedi representing on behalf of the respondent Government
of Nepal argued that Government of Nepal has not
discriminated to any of the Nepali citizens like the
petitioner in providing citizenship. For the exercise
of substantive rights as claimed by the petitioner,
some procedural formalities also have to be fulfilled.
As Sabina Damai has declined to obtain citizenship
mentioning that the fatherhood has not been traced
out and various processes were adopted to trace out
name, surname and address of her father. Therefore,
it cannot be interpreted that she has been denied
to provide citizenship. Hence, the writ petition has
to be quashed.
Now, upon listening to the above arguments, it has
to be decided whether or not the writ as sought by
the petitioner should be issued?
In this case, it has been obvious that the petitioner
Sabina Damai is 18 years old daughter of a Nepali
citizen Ganga Maya Damai, resident of Lamidanda
V. D. C of Dolakha district. It seems from the case file
that even her mother has been unable to mention
who her father was.
The respondent Ministry of Home Affairs has not
submitted its written response as seen from the
case file.
In the present writ petition duly scheduled in the
daily cause list and presented before this Bench
the documents enclosed in the case file have been
reviewed. Learned advocates representing the
petitioners Ms. Mira Dhungana and Ms. Sushma
Gautam pleaded that there is no dispute in the fact
that the petitioner Sabina Damai is a daughter of a
Nepali citizen Ganga Maya Damai. The whereabouts
of her father is not known. It is obvious that Sabina
Damai is citizen of Nepal by descent according the
provision of the Article 8(2) of Interim Constitution
of Nepal, 2007 and Section 3(1) of Nepal Citizenship
Act, 2006. There is a provision that such persons,
whose paternity or maternity is not establish, can
obtain citizenship according to the process as
prescribed in the Rule 3(3) of Nepal Citizenship
Rules, 2006. However, when Sabina fulfilling
the process mentioned above and applied for
citizenship from her mother’s name had submitted
the application to the District Administration
Office, Dolakha, the respondent Chief District
Officer ordered orally and did not provide her
citizenship and thus she has been forced to live
without citizenship and as stateless and resultantly
deprived from constitutional right of obtaining
citizenship and also deprived from legal rights that
are available to the citizen. The act of respondent
is against the Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007,
Nepal Citizenship Act and Rules, 2006 as well as
The case file also includes a Report of Public Field
Inquiry conducted on 28th July, 2010 which
reads that: “The mother of the petitioner came to
Kathmandu in search of work when she was 22 and
used to live in rented room at Jawalakhel. There she
had sexual relationship with the laborer working
therein and became pregnant from which the
petitioner was born. As she had sexual relationship
with various persons and therefore, even she cannot
identify from whose physical relation the petitioner
conceived. The paternity of Sabina Damai has not
been known even to her mother too. However, it
has been corroborated from Nepali citizenship
certificate bearing No 1353 issued by District
Administration Office, Dolakha on 13th May, 1988
that Sabina Dami’s mother Ganga Maya is a bona
fide Nepali citizen born in Lamidanda V. D. C. 2 of
Dolakha district on 19th January, 1964. Thus, there
is no dispute that the mother of Sabina Damai is a
Nepali citizen by descent.
From the recommendation of Lamidanda V. D. C
dated 25th July, 2010 and the Report of Public Field
Inquiry, it has been proved that the petitioner Sabina
Damai was born in Lamidanda VDC-2, Dolakha
district on 12th November, 1992.
It has been obvious that the present writ petition
has been filed because the petitioner has not been
able to obtain Nepali citizenship certificate until
48
Compilation of Selected Decisions of Supreme Court on
CITIZENSHIP and BIRTH REGISTRATION
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents