NA passes Nepal Citizenship (second amendment) Bill, Minister daubs it historic in terms of mother’s lineage right

Kathmandu, Aug 22: The National Assembly (NA) on Friday unanimously endorsed the Nepal Citizenship (second amendment) Bill that it received from the House of Representatives (HoR) attached with a message.

Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak presented the Bill at the Friday’s NA session and it was passed unanimously.

Now, the Upper House sends the Bill back to the Lower House along with the message.

The Home Minister had on January 28, 2025 ( Magh 15, 2081 BS)  registered the Bill in the HoR that had approved it on June 28 , 2025 ( Asar 14, 2082 BS).

Prior to the approval of the Bill, the Minister responded to lawmakers’ queries regarding the Bill.

As he said, the Bill aims to ensure the practical provision for issuing the citizenship in mother’s name. “With this Bill, we take a historic leap in the citizenship provisions and its credit goes to both the parliament and parliamentarians. This has been possible through collective efforts all”

The Bill has practically ensured that ‘mother is also the lineage of offspring’. With the endorsement of the Bill, it will be easy to issue the citizenship by descent, he added.

He further said that the Bill was designed to ensure that no Nepali shall be deprived of the citizenship as guaranteed by the Constitution.  He also thanked the parliament for contributing to further enriching the Bill, making it additionally practical and simplified.

Lawmakers Krishna Bahadur Rokaya, Renu Chand, Gopal Bhattarai, Maya Prasad Sharma, Padam Bahadur Pariyar, Bishnu Bahadur Bishwakarma and Suresh Alemagar took part in the discussions on the Bill.