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u/EngineeringFar4944

r/NepalSocial r/technepal r/ConstitutionOfNepal
▲ 2 r/ConstitutionOfNepal

Can any state institution force you to unlock and search your digital device?

[Warning: Not a lawyer, just interested in this stuff, so this may be wrong. Don’t use the information provided here to do stupid stuff.]

I was going through The Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 (2008), and Section 28 made me wonder:

>28. The Controller to have the Access to Computers and data: (1) The Controller shall, if there is a reasonable ground to suspect that provision of this Act and Rules framed hereunder has been violated, have the power to have the access to any computer system, apparatus, devices, data, information system or any other materials connected with such system.
(2) The Controller may, for the purpose of Sub-section (1), issue necessary directives to the owner of any computer system, apparatus, device, data, information system or any material connected with such system or to any other responsible person to provide technical or other cooperation as he/she deems necessary.
(3) It shall be the duty of the concerned person to comply with such directive issued under Sub-section (2)

This immediately made me wonder: What actually constitutes "reasonable ground" under Sub-section (1)? What does it truly mean to "issue necessary directives... to provide technical or other cooperation"? And when Sub-section (3) states that "it shall be the duty of the concerned person to comply" does that mean you can be legally compelled to hand over your password or forced into a biometric unlock if the Controller deems it "necessary"? This felt like way too much unchecked power for the Controller, so I went digging.

Since I am not a lawyer and don’t have time to go through legal mumbo-jumbo, I gathered some sources [Warning: AI Generated]:

>1. Passwords and the Right Against Self-Incrimination
Under Article 20(7) of the Constitution of Nepal, any person accused of an offense has a fundamental right against self-incrimination, meaning they cannot be compelled to testify against themselves.
The Communication of a Fact: The Supreme Court of Nepal has held that the constitutional boundary of self-incrimination turns on whether a police action compels the accused to communicate a fact (which is testimonial and strictly protected) or merely provide a physical sample (which is non-testimonial and not protected).
No Forced Passcodes: Because a phone password or passcode resides in your mind and memory, forcing you to reveal it is considered compelling testimonial communication. Therefore, the government cannot legally force you to disclose your passcode, and you are within your constitutional rights to refuse.
2. Biometrics as Physical Evidence
In contrast, Nepalese law treats biometric unlocking (such as fingerprints or facial scans) differently:
Physical Traces Are Not Protected: The right against self-incrimination does not extend to physical evidence.
Compelled Biometrics: An accused person can be legally required to provide physical and biological samples—such as fingerprints, handwriting specimens, or blood samples—because these are classified as physical traces rather than forced testimonies. Because biometrics are classified as physical identifiers rather than mental knowledge, authorities can, in limited circumstances, legally compel you to provide your fingerprint or face to unlock a device.
3. Judicial Warrant Requirements to Search a Phone
Even if the police successfully unlock your phone (whether through biometrics or voluntary consent), they cannot conduct a search of its contents without a judicial warrant.
Supreme Court Precedent: In the landmark case Advocate Baburam Aryal v. Government of Nepal, the Supreme Court of Nepal established that digital devices—including cell phones, computers, and digital accounts—strictly require search warrants or prior judicial authorization for data extraction.
Privacy Violations: Accessing Call Detail Records (CDRs) or searching a device’s internal data without a court-issued warrant violates privacy protections under Section 297 of the National Criminal Code, 2074 and the constitutional Right to Privacy under Article 28.

What I got from this is that the Controller's (or any state institution's) power has been restricted by Supreme Court precedent and they can't go around digging without warrants. Things that reside in your mind are protected by Article 20(7) (Right Against Self-Incrimination) of the Constitution of Nepal. However, since biometrics are classified as physical identifiers, authorities can force you to provide a biometric scan to unlock a device. Even then, they cannot go around digging through the contents before obtaining a judicial warrant (similar to legal stuff in many other countries).

TLDR: The Mamas probably will ignore the search warrant stuff, but legally speaking, if you want to be sure they don't dig through your device without a warrant, use a password instead of biometrics. Authorities are allowed to compel biometric unlocks, but searching the unlocked device still legally requires a search warrant. If you use a password or "things that reside in the mind," no one can legally force you to reveal it but they can get a warrant to conduct digital forensics on the device and attempt to crack it (similar to legal stuff in many other countries).

Don't use this information to do stupid stuff. I have seen people taking pictures near army bases or sensitive security sites, where the officer on duty asks to go through their phone. In those circumstances, they have reasonable suspicion. If you start yapping about 'your rights' or some shit, they could probably legally detain you and obtain a court warrant. They aren't interested in digging through your personal life, they just want to verify if you took photos of a sensitive facility. Don't play stupid games.

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u/EngineeringFar4944 — 1 day ago
▲ 3 r/ConstitutionOfNepal

Should we remove references to “socialism” from the upcoming constitutional amendments?

Our Constitution says that Nepal is “committed to socialism” [Preamble], defines the “State of Nepal” as “socialism-oriented” [Article 4(1)], and states in the “Directive Principles” that the economic objective of the State shall be to “develop a socialism-oriented independent and prosperous economy” [Article 50(3)]. While the Constitution considers it necessary to define what “secular” means [Article 4(1), Explanation], it provides no explanation of what “socialism” or “socialism-oriented” means and this is a big problem.

Marx described the future communist society as having two phases: a lower phase and a higher phase. In the lower phase, the means of production would be socially owned, rather than privately owned by capitalists, with workers collectively controlling the productive resources. Workers would receive labor certificates representing the amount of labor they contributed which would not function as circulating money and would be non-transferable, being used only to claim an equivalent share of goods and services (that took equivalent labor hour to make) [Critique of Gotha Program, Karl Marx]. The higher phase is the utopian stuff we all have heard from the commies. It will supposedly come after “lower phase” in post-scarcity society where resources are “infinite”. Lenin later termed the lower phase as socialism and higher phase as communism.

The part about non-circulating “labor hour currency” has not stayed in the modern definition but the most accepted definition of socialism now is: political and economic system in which all means of production would be socially owned.

Also take a look at this article, which claims that international investors are scared off by the reference to “socialism” in the Constitution, while old comrades assure them that it is merely a “formality” and that Nepal is de facto a free-market economy. Another one about Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) urging political parties to remove "socialism-oriented economy" from the constitution.

I think almost everyone agrees that Nepal has no viable alternative to a market economy. If that is the case, why should the constitution describe the State as “socialism-oriented”? If we are aiming for a welfare state, why dont we explicitly define it that way rather than retain the ambiguous “committed to socialism” and “socialism-oriented” in the constitution?

What do you all think?

u/EngineeringFar4944 — 11 days ago
▲ 19 r/NepalSocial

German Ambassador’s post after media reports of "mishandling" by aides at PMO

For 15 years, French giant IDEMIA ran Nepal’s passport system. On June 6, 2025, they lost the massive Rs 7.66 billion (~$60M) contract to two German state-linked firms: Mühlbauer (systems) and Veridos (printing). IDEMIA immediately started yapping, claiming the tender terms were fixed to handpick the Germans. Everyone thought they were yapping after they lost, but it now turns out they maybe right.

The German firms were supposed to build a new system and migrate national biometric data to new data centers within 240 days, but they failed completely. Also, during the subsequent interim government (when Chief Justice Sushila Karki stepped in), passport stocks plummeted and the new firms could not manage it. After that, the government was forced to order emergency passport booklets from the old French firm just to keep printing going.

The CIAA later got a complaint about this and began an investigation. They uncovered that the government had formed a technical sub-committee of IT experts to evaluate the bids. Their review found that Mühlbauer had failed 238 mandatory technical specifications for server infrastructure, and Veridos had failed 50 requirements for the booklets. After this was exposed, the sub-committee members (6 of the total 12 membets) refused to sign the approval file, but Passport Department DG Tirtha Raj Aryal overrode the experts to select the German firms anyway.

Even after PM Balen Shah took office, the passport stock couldn't keep up. Balen sent a PMO team to evaluate the department and discovered what was happening. To make matters worse, physical tests proved that the previous passports from the French firm turned out to be of much better quality than the new German ones (100GSM vs 90GSM paper and French one also being waterproof). Balen directed the CIAA chief (big debate here if executive can actually direct constitutional body) to take the matter seriously, and a series of high-profile arrests happened:

  • Bureaucrats: DG Tirtha Raj Aryal and IT Director Sunil Kumar KC were arrested.
  • Agents: The local agent for Mühlbauer (Manindra Raj Malla) was arrested. Meanwhile, Veridos's highly connected local agent, Siddhartha Thapa (grandson of 5-time PM Surya Bahadur Thapa), fled the country to evade police (reports indicate he crossed the border to India).
  • Politicians: In the most high-profile move of all, the CIAA officially served an interrogation notice to former Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba.

CIAA also issued public notice against international corporate executives who signed the original contracts on behalf of the two German firms. They have been ordered to appear for either virtual or physical interrogation.

Following the developments, German Ambassador Udo Volz went to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to defend the firms, since the German government holds a financial stake in Veridos [reported by media]. However, due to strict new diplomatic protocols implemented by the PMO, he didn't get an immediate audience and was made to wait for hours [reported by media]. Media reports later surfaced detailing a "undignified language" by Prime Minister's close aides. The German ambassador posted a response on X.

This post was heavily made by AI after giving it sources, here are the sources if you want to read it yourself.

TLDR:

A severe passport shortage prompted a PMO team to investigate, discovering that the newly contracted German firms were producing lower quality booklets. While the CIAA had been looking into procurement anomalies for months, Prime Minister Balen Shah directed them to aggressively ramp up the probe. This sparked a wave of high-profile domestic arrests and a formal summons for the German firms to face interrogation.

The situation quickly spiraled into a diplomatic incident. Media reports revealed that German Ambassador Udo Volz bypassed the PMO’s strict new diplomatic protocols to secure an unappointed meeting to defend the state-backed firms. He was made to wait for an extended period and was ultimately denied an audience with the Prime Minister, culminating in a reported confrontation involving "undignified language" between the Ambassador and Balen's close advisors. Following the heavy media leaks, the Ambassador posted a public clarification on X stating that neither he nor the Embassy had spoken to journalists or authorized any publication regarding the visit.

This is slightly corrected post rather than sensational title and little misleading "hostile discussion" that was in the previous post. Sorry for that I did not look at it much after AI generated it.

u/EngineeringFar4944 — 2 months ago
▲ 7 r/technepal

Libreoffice or open source office suite software as official use in government rather than Microsoft or proprietary suite.

I saw a post that said the government is building a national messaging app for data sovereignty (I have not verified this information). This got me thinking why hasn’t the government taken steps to replace proprietary office suites in government offices?

Sure it cannot be done in one full swoop which is exactly why we should implement it in phases and start today. Otherwise the longer we delay the more problems we will face when transitioning to another solution such as file format clashes incorrect document formatting and similar issues.

India already teaches the LibreOffice suite up to class 10 rather than the Microsoft suite we seem to be teaching here. They also use it in government offices and in training bureaucrats. Why can’t we do the same?

It makes even more sense for us to switch, even more than India since we use Devanagari script in offices. We could host a mirror of the LibreOffice website (they would likely allow it), preconfigured with Nepali fonts, Nepali date formats, and common government documentation templates. The government could also create a national cloud to store data within Nepal to for data sovereignty.

Initially, there would be some chaos but over time it would improve. Aren’t government officials retiring in large numbers after the new rule of retirement at 55 years and 30 years of service? It seems like the perfect time to train new officers and start implementing these changes in the curriculum and government offices. We can also save up some fees in proprietary licenses (I read somewhere that for developing countries it is very low or free so that they can keep them in the ecosystem but long term even if we dont pay now it seems like a trap). If the government were serious about data sovereignty surely they would consider doing this.

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u/EngineeringFar4944 — 2 months ago