India, July 16 -- The Delhi High Court has struck down the Centre's tender process for outsourcing Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) services at Indian missions in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore and Canberra, citing serious flaws in the evaluation process.

The court ruled that the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) technical assessment lacked transparency, fairness and proper documentation, making it arbitrary and violative of constitutional principles.

A Division Bench observed that bidders were awarded or denied marks without clear reasons, and the authorities failed to disclose the comparative standards used during the evaluation. The court said such unexplained deductions and inconsistent scoring undermined transparency and equality ...