KATHMANDU, Jan 30: The government has introduced a bill to grant naturalized citizenship to the children of women who gave birth abroad. This provision has been made in the bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act 2006 that was introduced in the House of Representatives.
The government has made such a provision in the bill, keeping in mind the increasing number of children born abroad, whose fathers are unknown, and their peril of becoming stateless. This move will address the negative societal prejudice towards women who return to Nepal with children born without the father’s identity.
The added section 5 of the Nepal Citizenship Act 2063, Sub-Section 5 (b) states that a person of Nepali citizen mother born abroad and residing in Nepal, who has not obtained a foreign citizenship or passport, and whose father is unknown, may obtain naturalized Nepali citizenship if he/she makes a self-declaration as prescribed.
As parties wrestle over naturalized citizenship, thousands don'...
The government also aims to address various court orders related to citizenship in the law. The bill has been brought in accordance with some important court orders related to citizenship. Amending the Section 8 (a) of the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006, it has been proposed to provide the option to leave the father’s name, surname, and address blank in the citizenship document if the individual does not want to include that information.
According to the prevailing law, one must submit a citizenship certificate of their father, mother, or a relative within three generations of their ancestry in order to apply for citizenship. However, the proposed bill provides an exemption for those who do not wish to include their father's name, surname, or address in the citizenship application.
The bill states, “If a person submits an application stating that he/she does not want to mention his father's name, surname, and address on his citizenship certificate, the individual should, in any case, be issued a Nepali citizenship certificate without mentioning any details in the space designated for the father's name, surname, and address.” In 2078 BS, the Supreme Court (SC) issued an order granting exemption to those who do not want to keep their father's name, surname, and address.
The case involves an individual born to Kumari Aama, with the birth certificate stating that the father, Lokesh Subedi, is unreachable, mentioning that the father has not taken care of his daughter, Kristina Maharjan, who has never met her father. Kristina has stated that she does not accept the person as her father and does not wish to obtain a citizenship certificate under his name. In response to this request, the SC issued an order in 2068 BS to issue the Nepali citizenship certificate based on a self-declaration, leaving the father's name blank on the certificate.
Similarly, the bill proposes a provision to grant citizenship only in the mother's name. In cases where the father is out of contact or there is no information about him, the bill has a provision to grant citizenship certificates to descendants in the mother's name. There are various court orders regarding granting citizenship in the mother's name. In the 2077 BS writ petition against Suraj Ghimire, the SC had issued a mandate to grant citizenship in the name of his mother. The SC order states, “As his father is missing, the petitioner Suraj Ghimire should be granted a Nepali citizenship certificate in the name of his mother.” Similarly, in another 2067 BS writ petition against Sabina Damai, the SC had issued an order to grant Nepali citizenship in the name of his mother.
Similarly, in 2068 BS, the SC issued an order stating that a person born in any part of Nepal to a Nepali citizen father or mother has the right to obtain a Nepali citizenship certificate from that same district.
This bill provides a provision to grant naturalized Nepali citizenship to children of a person whose father or mother has acquired Nepali citizenship by birth and whose mother has died before acquiring citizenship by birth or whose mother is unreachable.
