Supreme Court issues interlocutory interim order stopping enforcement of the law signed by President Paudel.

Sunday’s House of Representatives meeting got tense after the opposition’s continuous protests obstructed proceedings.

As soon as the House Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire convened the meeting, lawmakers from opposition parties—the CPN-UML, the Rastriya Swatantra Party and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party—stood from their seats to protest the President’s validation of the citizenship bill last week. The Speaker’s repeated requests had no impact on the lawmakers who soon started chanting slogans.

The House meeting has been postponed until 11 am, Monday.

Lawmakers of the opposition parties said President Ramchandra Paudel skipped due process while certifying the bill.

President Paudel has attracted controversy in less than three months of assuming office after he, last Wednesday, authenticated the Citizenship Act amendment bill which was twice rejected by his predecessor Bidya Devi Bhandari.

Speaking at the House meeting on Sunday, Padam Giri, the UML chief whip, claimed that the President had breached the statute by authenticating the bill. He demanded the new law be rendered inactive and a fresh one be registered in Parliament and endorsed.

Similarly, the Rastriya Swatantra Party's chief whip Santosh Pariyar said his party objected to the bill authentication process while clarifying that the party believes that obtaining a citizenship certificate is the right of every Nepali citizen.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Chairman Rajendra Lingden demanded that the government clarify why the citizenship bill was authenticated just hours before Prime Minister Dahal’s visit to India.

“In whose interest and for whose happiness was the bill authenticated? The House proceedings can’t resume unless the prime minister clarifies issues including his India visit,” said Lingden.

The opposition also expressed serious objections to Prime Minister Dahal’s remarks that the border dispute with India could be resolved through a land-swap deal.

Dahal on Friday had said that Nepal can consider giving the Kalapani area to India to gain a land link to Bangladesh via the southern neighbour.

UML’s Giri said the party would not allow Parliament to resume business until the prime minister answers the questions.

Prime Minister Dahal returned home on Saturday after a four-day visit of India.

The opposition parties also objected to the presidential pardon for Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, who was convicted by all three courts in the 2015 Tikapur massacre.

On the eve of the Republic Day, Paudel last Monday pardoned the convicted Tikapur massacre mastermind and former lawmaker. The move has met with widespread resistance and criticism, as legal experts suggest that such a pardon culture will promote impunity. Not only the opposition parties, even key leaders of the ruling coalition have denounced the pardon.

The House was scheduled to discuss the budget for the next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the meeting of the National Assembly was also postponed till Monday following obstruction by UML members.

The process of authenticating the bill to amend the Citizenship Act was initiated in July last year. After both chambers of Parliament first endorsed the bill and sent it to then-President Bhandari, she sent it back with her 15-point concern.

However, the federal parliament endorsed the bill without any changes and detailed discussion. When re-sent for authentication, Bhandari sat on the bill, allowing the 15-day deadline to lapse, drawing severe criticism from various quarters. The constitution envisages that the President endorses the bill the second time.

Now the bill’s passage has cleared the way to issue citizenship to up to 400,000 people who have been deprived of their constitutional right and rendered stateless. It clears the way for thousands of children of the parents who got citizenship by birth to acquire citizenship by descent.

The Act allowed everyone born inside Nepal’s territory before April 12, 1990 to acquire citizenship by birth. However, their children haven’t got citizenship by descent in the absence of a law, as the constitution said the provision to grant them citizenship would be guided by a federal law.

Rastriya Swatantra Party press coordinator Ganesh Karki said the party believes the citizenship bill is essential but such a serious issue should be resolved only by following the due parliamentary process. “However, this time, a wrong process was followed to get the bill through,” he said.

According to Karki, the bill lacks clarity and discriminates against women.

Opposition leaders say they will continue their protest until their concerns are addressed.

RPP spokesman Sagun Sundar Lawati said the bill should be tabled in Parliament again and endorsed following the proper process. “The government’s decision was wrong. They should have held consultations first. We will continue the protest,” he said.

In the meantime, the Supreme Court, acting on a writ petition, issued an interlocutory interim order on Sunday not to implement the amended Citizenship law authenticated by the President. A single bench of justice Manoj Sharma issued the order. The top court has also called both the petitioners and the government for a discussion.

Senior advocates Surendra Bhandari and Balkrishna Neupane had filed the petition claiming that President Paudel breached the constitution in certifying the bill.