The Supreme Court has ruled that publishing candidates’ citizenship numbers while releasing driving licence examination results is unlawful.

A division bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Meghraj Pokharel on Sunday issued a mandamus order in the name of the Department of Transport Management. The court said making citizenship numbers public in written and practical driving test results violates the law. The full text of the verdict is yet to be issued.

The ruling followed a writ petition filed by law student Bibek Chaudhary, who argued that publishing citizenship numbers infringes citizens’ right to privacy. He had named the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the Department of Transport Management, and several transport offices in Bagmati Province as defendants.

Chaudhary said transport offices in Ekantakuna, Thulobharyang, Chabahil and Bhaktapur published names, roll numbers and citizenship numbers while releasing results, breaching the constitutional right to privacy.

Citing the Privacy Act, 2018, the petition said Section 19 guarantees the confidentiality of personal information, while Section 2 defines citizenship numbers as personal data. Publishing such information without legal authority, it said, runs contrary to the rule of law.

The petition also warned that disclosing sensitive details like citizenship numbers could expose individuals to identity theft, financial fraud and document forgery.

It further noted that the Driving Licence Examination Operation Procedure Guidelines, 2020, require only the roll number and name of successful candidates to be published, with no provision allowing disclosure of citizenship numbers.