Nepal’s Transition from Monarchy to Republic

The current “Constitution of Nepal 2072” is fifth such constitution and denotes Bikrami year 2072. The first constitution of Nepal was Government of Nepal Act, 1948. This constitution vested all the powers into the hereditary Prime Ministers of the Rana clan. After the Revolution of 1951, an “Interim Government of Nepal Act, 1951” restored the power to the king. This constitution was restored by King Tribhuvan. The third such constitution was promulgated in 1959 before the parliamentary elections by King Mahendra Bikram Shah as “Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1959”. Hover, after the elections, Mahendra dismissed the government and party system and established a partyless Panchayat system under “Constitution of Nepal, 1962”. In this system, the sole power was with the Kings, democracy was absent and forming political parties was illegal. After the Jan Andolan-I revolt, the King Birendra was pressurized to take new constitution and Nepal was thus converted into Constitutional Monarchy. A multiparty system with parliamentary system of government was put in place. After the Jan Andolan-II, the Interim Constitution was adopted in 2007, which provided for an elected Constituent Assembly. In 2008, the Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy in its very first meeting. In September 2015, the present Constitution of Nepal was promulgated which declared Nepal as federal democratic republican nation. The executive rights of the country are stated to be belonged to the Council of Ministers while the President would be ceremonial head-of-the-state.

Thus, the new Constitution imbibes the principle of democracy in stark contrast to the last one which promulgated state as a constitutional monarchy ruled by a Hindu king.  The new constitution has also ended the chances of revival of monarchy.