Victims, Kamal Mehattar Podey, 20 and his brother Suraj Mehattar Podey, 18 of Birendranagr Municipality-9 complained that they were not provided citizenship by district administration office stating about the absence of act to provide citizenship by decent.
Part-2, Article 11(3) of Constitution of Nepal 2072 states that a child of a citizen having obtained the citizenship of Nepal by birth prior to the commencement of Nepal shall, upon attaining majority, acquire the citizenship of Nepal by descent if the child’s father and mother both are citizens of Nepal.
They were denied to provide citizenship by Chief of District Administration Office, Mahadev Pantha despite of presenting the papers according to the provision of the constitution – complained Mehattar Podey. The team of Human right activist along with the victim’s grandfather on March 26 went to CDO Pantha on the request of Kamal Mehattar Podey to INSEC on March 24. They forwarded an application being based on Section 3(1) of Citizenship Act 2066, stating that a child of a citizen having obtained the citizenship of Nepal by birth can acquire the citizenship of Nepal by descent if the child’s father and mother both are citizens of Nepal along with the death certificate of their father and land ownership certificate of the victims. However, the CDO Panthaa denied to provide citizenship reiterating the same reason.
CDO Pantha argued that he cannot provide citizenship unless the family of Suraj and Kamal receives the certification of migration on the basis of the citizenship No.15873 provided to their father on April 3, 1986 by Kathmandu District, Saukhel Setidevi VDC-6 and unless the Citizenship Act to give citizenship by descent is formulated. His argument of Kathmandu District Administration can only provide citizenship to the victims in nothing but the mockery of constitutional provision according to lawyers.
Senior Advocate, Bhusan Kumar Manandhar said- Suraj and Kamal should receive the citizenship by descent even though the Citizenship Act to provide Citizenship by descent is not formulated and since the Citizenship Act 2063 has not been repealed.
No matter from where the parent of a child had received citizenship within the country, a person whose father or mother was a citizen of Nepal at his or her birth will have the right to acquire citizenship by descent according to the constitution of Nepal.
Similarly, According to Advocate Nanda Bhandari, the precedents established by Supreme Court regarding these kinds of issues have also been ignored.
He added, Suraj and Kamal can acquire citizenship being based on Part 2 Article-10 and 11 of the Constitution, Section 3(1) of the Citizenship Act 063, Rule No 3 (1) of Citizenship Regulation.
Prem Bahadur Podey died on April 28, 2001 while he was in Surkhet in search of employment. His wife, Tara Poudel involved in second marriage before a year of his death and his two son were living in the guardianship of their maternal’s home. Both of them are illiterate and are laborers. They have been forwarding application in local administration for citizenship but always had to return empty hands.