Maternity not sole ground for citizenship

Kathmandu, August 7-The SC today ruled that citizenship certificate cannot be issued to anyone solely on the basis of his or her mother being a Nepali. The SC ruling was given on a petition filed by advocate Achyut Prasad Kharel. The bench had some months ago pronounced the verdict but the full text of the judgment was released today. “It would not be practical to provide citizenship to anyone without identifying his or her father,” the bench also added. “The drafters of the 1990 statute have kept a provision to provide citizenship on the grounds of someone’s father being a Nepali. So the bench cannot order the government to provide citizenship to any one on any other consideration,” the verdict said.