Constitution of Nepal (Second Amendment 2077) Bill


The Constitution of Nepal Bill seeks to give legal status to a new map of Nepal to be used in the country's national emblem by amending Schedule 3 in the Constitution of Nepal. The Council of Ministers of Nepal had announced the new map on 20 May 2020 and two days later it was placed in the Parliament. On 13 June 2020, the motion was put forth for voting in the lower house of Nepal's Parliament by the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Voting was unanimous with ayes being 258 with no nays. On 18 June 2020, the Upper House unanimously passed the Bill after which the President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari signed the Bill.
The new map places Indian held territory Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani as territory under Nepal. Nepal claims the area as per the Treaty of Sugauli and claims that India was granted permission for troop movement in the area in the 1950s, but since then India has refused to move them back. The move also comes ahead of the Prime Minister of Nepal facing calls to step down, and days after India opened a road through Lipulekh to Lake Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. In November 2019 India had issued a new map in which Kalapani, a disputed territory according to Nepal, was shown as Indian territory. The map showed the regions as part of Uttarakhand.