KATHMANDU: The supreme court has upheld the department of passport’s decision to award a passport printing contract worth over Rs 8 billion to German companies. A joint bench of justices Kumar Regmi and Shrikant Paudel dismissed three writ petitions filed by the competing French firm Idemia on Monday, effectively legitimizing the agreement.
The department of passport had signed the contract last July for the printing and operation of 6.4 million electronic passports over a five-year period, valued at Rs 8.06 billion. Under the agreement, German firms Muhlbauer ID Services and Veridos were awarded ‘package 1’ and ‘package 2’ respectively.
Idemia, which was excluded from the bidding process, had challenged the decision, alleging serious technical irregularities. The company argued that the bidders proposed rack servers instead of the required lead servers and contested the number of printing machines provided. These claims were previously rejected by the public procurement review committee, prompting the company to move the supreme court.
The court’s ruling concludes the legal dispute that had stalled the passport procurement process for some time, clearing the way for the German companies to proceed with the printing work as per the contract.
