Citizenship Bill fails to get certified once again     

September 21, Kathmandu: The bill to amend the Citizenship Act has failed to be authenticated once again.

The Bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2063 was endorsed twice by both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota 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 12.00 midnight on Tuesday.

The Chief personal secretary of the President, Bhesh Raj Adhikari said that the bill was not certified as of 12.00 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 for the second time without making any changes.

According to the constitution, the President should authenticate the bill within 15 days of re-submission.

There has been a wider public concern as to what would happen to the bill when it was not certified a second time as per the constitution and as the ongoing session of the House of Representatives had also concluded.