SC to Mon hear govt plea on quashing of svcs tender at some Indian missions
This story was originally published at 11:57 IST on 17 July 2026
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday agreed to hear Monday the Ministry of External Affairs' plea against a Delhi High Court's order that quashed the tender for outsourcing of consular, passport, visa services at the Indian Missions situated at Kuwait, Abu Dhabi of United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Canberra of Australia. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta mentioned the case before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. Mehta said that after the high court's order virtually everything has come to a stand still and in emergency the government is issuing passports and giving visas in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Australia, said Mehta.
Mehta said that since there was no such outsourced agency available for the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Australia, the ministry has diverted the consumer staff to do consular, passport and visa services. This staff is not equipped to do these services and not even sufficient for managing all these things, said Mehta. The high court has allowed VFS Global, the earlier successful bidder, to continue operating until a new contract is awarded, however VFS has left on Jul. 1 and now they are not coming back as they are not under any contract, said Mehta.
The case has its genesis from two unsuccessful bidders E Trav Tech Ltd. and Verasys Ltd. moving the high court concerning the technical evaluation of bids submitted by them pursuant to the tender given by the external affairs ministry. E Trav and Verasys had assailed a communication wherein they were declared unsuccessful at the technical-bid stage along with the consequent parameter-wise evaluation communicated to them. The ministry had held that E Trav and Verasys had failed to secure minimum 70% marks to qualify for opening of their financial bids. The petitioners said that the criteria-wise evaluation of their technical bids is arbitrary and that the marks awarded to them under the respective parameters stipulated under the respective request for proposals are unsupported by any reasons.
The high court held that mere communication of parameter-wise marks, without indicating the reasons or factual basis for deductions or comparative assessment, neither demonstrates application of mind nor enables E Trav and Verasys to understand why their otherwise compliant proposals were found deficient. The high court said that the failure of the external affairs ministry to record and communicate reasons for the technical evaluation violates its request for proposals, rendering the decision-making process opaque, arbitrary and contrary to the principles of natural justice and fair administrative action.
The high court asked the ministry to issue a fresh request for proposal for procurement of consular, passport, visa services across all four missions, within a period of one month and make sincere efforts to conclude the process at the earliest. Challenging the high cour order, the external affairs ministry moved the apex court. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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