India, July 16 -- The Delhi High Court has set aside the tender awarded by the central government to private firms for outsourcing consular, passport and visa (CPV) services at the Indian missions in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore and Canberra and directed it to issue a fresh request for proposals (RFP) within one month inviting fresh bids.

A bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Shail Jain in its verdict delivered on Wednesday opined that the Centre while taking the decision, relied on undisclosed comparative standards, made unexplained deductions under objective evaluation criteria, and adopted inconsistent marking.

The court said that these deficiencies struck at the very heart of transparency, fairness and equality in the public procu...