SAC hits King from approving Public Documents

The Parliament's State Affairs Committee (SAC) has decided to scrap the terminology ‘His Majesty’ from the Bill on Approving Public Document and deprived the King from the power of approving Public Documents.
The meeting of the SAC took the decision to remove the terminology from the bill, saying it would not affect the functioning of the Act.

The Bill, in Clause (2), had given the right to approve public documents to ‘His Majesty’. After the bill is passed by the parliament, any person appointed by the Nepal government will have the authority of approving the public documents.

Earlier, the meeting of the committee adjourned twice following dispute among lawmakers on whether to allow the King the right to verify public documents or not.

In previous meetings, Nepali Congress and Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) leaders proposed going with the ‘Head of the State,’ but leftist lawmakers strongly opposed it, demanding definition of the term, if it was to be used to replace the term His Majesty.

The amended act presented by law minister Narendra Bikram Nemwang before the parliament earlier sparked criticism and was referred to the SAC after Clause (2) had given the right to approve public documents to ‘His Majesty’.

Meanwhile, chairman of the SAC Hridaya Ram Thani told Nepalnews that henceforth the credentials of the foreign diplomats will be received by the person appointed by the government of Nepal. He said the person could be Prime Minister, chief secretary or Speaker.

"This has scrapped all powers vested in the king making him a citizen of the country," Thani said. He, however, said the king will still be the head of the state even after this amendment.