New Delhi, 15 July (H.S.): The Delhi High Court has set aside the Ministry of External Affairs' technical evaluation process for awarding contracts related to passport and visa services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Singapore and Australia. A Bench headed by Justice Anil Kshetrapal held that the evaluation process suffered from arbitrariness and lacked transparency in the award of contracts for passport and visa services in these countries.

The Ministry of External Affairs had invited tenders for providing passport and visa services abroad. During the evaluation process, the Ministry declared certain companies technically disqualified. Two such companies—eTrav Tech Limited and VFS Global Services Limited (Verasis Limited, as referred to in the petition)—challenged the Ministry's decision to declare them technically ineligible for the tender process.

The High Court also set aside the tenders awarded to the successful bidders by the Ministry of External Affairs. However, to ensure that the public does not face any disruption in passport and visa services, the Court directed the companies currently providing these services to continue their operations until a fresh tender process is completed and new service providers take over in accordance with law.

The High Court observed that the technical evaluation process involved arbitrary allocation of marks against the prescribed eligibility criteria and lacked transparency in the award of contracts. It further held that the Ministry of External Affairs and the concerned Indian High Commissions had violated Rules 173(4) and 189 of the General Financial Rules (GFR). The Court also noted that the bidders whose tenders were rejected were not informed of the reasons for their disqualification.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar