KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by IN Groupe, formerly known as IDEMIA, challenging the Department of Passport's evaluation and decision to award the e-passport enrolment and passport printing project to German companies Veridos and Muehlbauer.
A bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Srikanth Poudel issued the verdict, dismissing three writ petitions filed by IDEMIA. The court also issued a directive order on another writ petition seeking to ensure that passports are printed at the Security Printing Centre in the future.
The passport project had been drawn into controversy after IDEMIA failed to secure the contract in an international bidding process. The financial proposal submitted by Veridos and Muehlbauer was approximately Rs 190 crore lower than IDEMIA's proposal.
The contract resulted in a reduction in the price of each passport booklet from $10.13 to $8.61, generating savings for the state.
Despite the lower bid and projected savings, a corruption case was filed against the German companies Veridos and Muehlbauer.
The revelation that IN Groupe had failed to pay more than Rs 30 crore in taxes was also highlighted during the dispute.
The controversy intensified after allegations that IDEMIA had presented a false and sensationalised narrative against the German companies and the Department of Passport to the Prime Minister's Office.
IDEMIA, now known as IN Groupe, had been supplying passports to the Government of Nepal for the past 17 years. Its failure to secure the new contract resulted in a commercial dispute that escalated into a wider controversy, attracting national attention.
The Supreme Court's decision addresses the legal challenges brought against the evaluation process and the award of the passport project to Veridos and Muehlbauer.