KATHMANDU, Jan 22: The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a writ petition challenging the government’s decision for mandatory use of the National Identity Card (NIC) to avail government facilities. A full bench of Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, Justice Abdul Aziz Musalman, and Justice Nripadhwaj Niraula on Sunday dismissed the writ and also issued a directive order. Following the SC’s decision, the NIC has now become mandatory to receive government facilities.
Senior advocate Dhruba Lal Shrestha, advocates Ram Bahadur Raut and Bimal Pokharel had filed separate writ petitions against the government decision. The writ petitioners had demanded that NIC should not be made mandatory, arguing that it would cause inconvenience to the general public, despite having citizenship. SC spokesperson Achyut Kuikel said that the written order of the directive had not yet been prepared.
Along with the dismissal of the writ petition, the interim order issued earlier by the SC has also become void. The Ministry of Home Affairs had filed a petition requesting the cancellation of the interim order issued by the SC. The SC had issued an interim order directing that the NIC not be made mandatory for the public services rendered by the government.
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The Ministry of Home Affairs had published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on June 24, 2024 instructing the general public to get government facilities by submitting their NIC number. The notice mentions “Instead of presenting a Nepali Citizenship Certificate, a NIC or NIC number can be presented to obtain or request public services or facilities provided by government-owned bodies, institutions, or the private sector.” The SC’s interim order halted the implementation of that notice. However, after the writ petition was dismissed, the NIC has become mandatory as per the government’s decision.
The government on June 6 announced the mandatory use of the NIC number for the renewal of social security allowance in 28 districts in the first phase. The NIC has already become mandatory in the designated districts from July 16.
In the second phase, NICs has become compulsory in 38 districts from January 14. In the rest of the districts, the government has decided to make the NIC mandatory from July 16, 2025.
Similarly, NIC has been made mandatory to open a bank account. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has revised and amended the Unified Directive 2080 BS to make it mandatory to open a bank account from the month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February).
The NRB has made it mandatory to provide NIC numbers not only to open new accounts but also to update existing accounts.
The amended NRB directive mentions, “When identifying customers or updating customer details, the high-risk associated crimes highlighted by the National Risk Assessment (NRA) and Mutual Evaluation Report-2023, including corruption, tax evasion, human trafficking, and other high-risk associated crimes and casino or internet casino operators, precious metals or commodities traders, real estate buyers and sellers, accounts of cooperatives and the identification of related persons and their transactions should also be monitored on a priority basis.”
The government has also made the NIC mandatory for government services in order to integrate every detail of an individual.
