Kathmandu, July 22: The Supreme Court has ruled that a Nepali woman cannot be denied citizenship by descent solely because she married a foreign national, clarifying constitutional protections for women in such cases.
In a landmark verdict, the Constitutional Bench held that any person whose father or mother was a Nepali citizen at the time of their birth is entitled to citizenship by descent under Article 11(2)(b) of the Constitution, regardless of whom they later marry.
The ruling came in the case of Sukumaya Lama of Makwanpur, who was denied citizenship after marrying an Indian national before obtaining her own citizenship certificate.
Although the Citizenship Act, 2006, required applicants to submit the citizenship certificate of a parent or a close ancestor, it also contained a provision excluding women married to foreign nationals. District Administration Offices had long relied on that provision to reject such applications.
The Supreme Court ruled that the restriction cannot override the constitutional right to citizenship by descent.
“If it is established that a woman’s father or mother was a Nepali citizen at the time of her birth, she is entitled to citizenship by descent,” the court said in its full verdict.
The bench also clarified that a Nepali woman’s own citizenship status is separate from that of her children. While children born to a Nepali woman and a foreign husband may qualify for naturalized citizenship under existing laws, the mother’s constitutional right to citizenship by descent remains unaffected.
Lama’s legal battle lasted 16 years.
She moved to India at the age of 12 to work in a circus, where she married an Indian citizen and had two daughters. After her husband died, she returned to Nepal but was unable to obtain citizenship, preventing her daughters from receiving birth registration.
Despite recommendations from local authorities, the Makwanpur District Administration repeatedly rejected her application. She eventually filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 2011.
The Constitutional Bench, led by Chief Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut along with Justices Kumar Regmi, Hari Phuyal, Nahakul Subedi and Til Prasad Shrestha, delivered the verdict on May 28, 2025.
The court directed the Makwanpur District Administration Office to issue Lama a citizenship certificate by descent after verifying that either of her parents was a Nepali citizen.
Lama finally received her citizenship certificate in September 2025 at the age of 46, more than three decades after leaving Nepal and 16 years after beginning her legal fight.
The court emphasized that Nepal’s Constitution does not envision statelessness and that citizens should not be deprived of nationality when their constitutional eligibility is established.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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