Kathmandu, Jan 27: Rabi Lamichhane, who lost the posts of lawmaker and Home Minister after the verdict of the Supreme Court, has said he would welcome SC decision.
Responding to queries of media persons while exiting from Home Ministry after SC’s verdict on Friday, Lamichhane shared there was not any higher body than the Supreme Court, so he welcomed the SC’s verdict.
“I welcome the SC’s verdict,” he reiterated, wondering, “In other questions, what can a non-citizen respond.” Lamichhane further said, “You are asking questions to a non-citizen. I don’t know whom the question is being asked.”
Lamichhane lost both posts of minister and lawmaker after the SC determined him guilty in the case of citizenship row.
A constitutional bench of Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki, and Justices—Bishwombhar Shrestha, Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada, Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Anil Kumar Sinha- decided Lamichhane a guilty.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane has tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda today. It’s unclear who will lead the Home Ministry in absence of Lamichhane.
Lamichhane’s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won 20 seats in the House of Representatives. It is the fourth largest party in the House after Nepali Congress, CPN UML and CPN Maoist Centre. It has a crucial role to form any coalition government.
Now, Mr Lamichhane have to apply in the Chief District Office to invoke his Nepali citizenship. Lamichhane has stated publicly that he held USA citizen for nearly 10 years but left US citizenship willingly. But he failed to apply again in the Nepali competent authority to invoke his Nepali citizenship.
However, he will face another charge of keeping dual citizenship and passport for some years, which itself a gross violation of the country’s law. If such case emerge again in the apex court, he may be unable to contest election in Chitwan-2 again.
