Civic Data Hub · नजिर
The landmark Supreme Court rulings that changed the country’s law — the recognition of a third gender, a daughter’s equal claim to property, the right to safe abortion, an end to amnesty for disappearance, a clean environment as part of the right to life. Each in plain language, each with a public source.
Supreme Court · 2005
Denying a daughter property or benefits because she is married violates the right to equality.
A cornerstone of women’s equal property rights. The Court struck down provisions that withheld inheritance and pension benefits from married daughters as unconstitutional, driving the amendment that removed marriage as a barrier to a daughter’s inheritance.
Read moreSupreme Court · 2000
Different retirement or service terms for women is unlawful sex discrimination in employment.
Air hostesses faced earlier forced retirement than male staff. The Court held the discriminatory service terms unconstitutional, advancing equal treatment of women at work.
Read moreSupreme Court · 2007
LGBTI people are natural persons entitled to every constitutional right; the state must recognise a third gender.
One of Asia’s most far-reaching gender-rights rulings. The Court held that sexual and gender minorities are natural persons, ordered a third-gender category on official documents, told the state to scrap discriminatory laws, and to study same-sex marriage.
Read moreSupreme Court · 2009
Safe abortion is part of a woman’s reproductive rights; inability to pay cannot deny access.
After a poor mother of five was denied an abortion she could not afford, the Court directed the state to enact a comprehensive abortion law and remove cost and access barriers — a foundation of reproductive rights in Nepal.
Read moreSupreme Court · 1998
A person cannot be forced to undergo an intimate medical examination; the body is private.
The Court barred a court-ordered virginity test, holding that forcing an intimate physical examination violates personal privacy and dignity — an early and influential privacy ruling.
Read moreSupreme Court · 2007
Enforced disappearance must be criminalised, investigated, and compensated — no amnesty.
On behalf of a lawyer disappeared during the conflict, the Court ordered the state to criminalise enforced disappearance, form a commission of inquiry, and compensate families — the bedrock of Nepal’s transitional-justice jurisprudence.
Read moreSupreme Court · 1995
A clean and healthy environment is part of the right to life; citizens may sue in the public interest.
Nepal’s foundational environmental case. The Court recognised the right to a clean environment within the right to life and cemented public-interest litigation as a way for any citizen to defend the public good.
Read moreAbout this. These are landmark, published Supreme Court judgments of public importance, summarised in plain language for orientation — not legal advice. The plain sentence is ours; the judgment is what binds. We index precedent-setting decisions that shaped the law, not private litigation. A curated first set that grows over time.
