Salient Features of Nepal Constitution 2072

The deadline for framing the constitution was extended several times since 2008. During this period, politics of Nepal has been subject to all sorts of factional and political struggles. The Constituent assembly could not draft the constitution in its original and extended total tenure of 4 years. Due to this, the assembly was dissolved in May 2012.

Second Constituent Assembly and Drafting of Constitution

The next Constituent Assembly elections were held in November 2013, and in between this period, politics of Nepal remained in suspension. After the elections, a 2nd Nepalese Constituent Assembly was created.  The major issue in framing the constitution was  absence of consensus between the political parties and Maoists; radical leftists and royalist rights.

Constitution of Nepal 2072

Finally after many years of struggle, Nepal adopted its first democratic Constitution on September 20, 2015. Its salient features are:

• It establishes Nepal as secular and federal democratic republic with bicameral parliament. Country has been split in seven federal provinces.
• Executive rights are vested in Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister. The President is ceremonial head.
• It establishes independent judiciary and press freedom.
• It establishes competitive multi-party democratic system with periodic elections. Enshrines fundamental rights, civic freedom, human rights, voting rights and full press freedom etc. to its citizens.

It took eight full years after adoption of the interim constitution in 2007 to promulgate the new constitution. With this Nepal now stands as youngest republic in the world. The path to new Constitution was highly strenuous as there was lack of consensus among the legislators.