The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the implementation of new amendments to the Citizenship Act that were authenticated by President Ramchandra Paudel. 

A division bench of justices Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Kumar Regmi decided not to give continuity to the interlocutory interim order earlier issued by the single bench of Justice Manoj Sharma. 

However, the court is yet to issue a final verdict. 

Hearing the writ petition filed by senior advocates Surendra Bhandari and Bal Krishna Neupane, the apex court on June 4 had ordered authorities not to enforce the new amendments. 

The court’s latest order has cleared the way for thousands of children of parents who got citizenship by birth to acquire citizenship by descent. An estimated 400,000 such Nepalis are waiting for their citizenship. 

A group of youths have been protesting in Kathmandu for the past few weeks demanding an immediate implementation of the recently endorsed bill to amend the Citizenship Act. 

The petitioners had filed the petition at the apex court following the President’s authentication of the amendment bill, stating that President Paudel had endorsed the Citizenship Bill unconstitutionally. 

The President on May 31 had authenticated the bill—the same one that his predecessor had twice refused to endorse—after repeated requests from the government followed by a series of consultations with legal and political experts.