Overview
- The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside the Ministry of External Affairs' technical evaluation and nullified contract awards for Consular, Passport and Visa services at missions in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore and Canberra.
- The judges found the evaluation process used undisclosed comparative benchmarks, unexplained deductions and inconsistent scoring that lacked recorded reasons, noting identical submissions received widely different marks across missions.
- The bench directed the MEA to issue fresh requests for proposal within one month and permitted incumbent vendors to continue provisionally so that public services do not stop during re-tendering.
- The dispute has already affected operations: VFS Global paused new passport and visa applications in Australia from July 1 and planned handovers in the UAE were deferred with Indian missions providing limited consular services.
- The ruling tightens judicial scrutiny of procurement transparency, could raise costs for the public exchequer if lower financial bids were wrongly excluded, and the Centre has sought higher‑court review with the Supreme Court due to hear the matter next week.