Nepal’s Supreme Court has disqualified Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s membership of Parliament on the grounds that he did not have valid citizenship to contest elections. He was sworn in as the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal on 26 December 2022. A constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki pronounced the verdict today.
The ruling stated that Lamichhane was ineligible to run for the House of Representatives because he had not taken the initiative to acquire Nepali citizenship after renouncing his US citizenship.
The Court said that all acts done by Rabi as a Nepalese citizen would be illegal. In fact, the petition stated that Lamichhane had not acquired Nepali citizenship after giving up US citizenship. At the same time, after this decision of the Constitutional Bench, the post of minister and MP of Lamichhane has been cancelled. Similarly, Lamichhane is also ineligible to become the president of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party.
