A writ petition has been filed at the Supreme Court against the government's decision to award the contract for printing of Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to an Indian government security press.
The petition filed Tuesday against the entire Cabinet and Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai demands to scrap the decision.
Nepal government has recently decided to award the contract of supplying MRP to Indian security press through bilateral negotiations in
order to get the ultra-modern passport printed as soon as possible after the International
Civil Aviation Organisation asked it to halt issuance of hand written passports.
The government, through its "non-transparent decision" on the MRP contract, has made a mockery of laws, jeopardized national security and put
a blow on national sovereignty, says the writ filed by advocate Hemmani Subedi, according to court sources.
The Indian security press has agreed to supply the MRP at the cost of USD 4 per copy.
A Parliament Committee had summoned Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Monday to furnish clarification regarding the issue of the decision to award the contract to the Indian security press to supply the passports.
Responding to the Parliament committee's query the Prime Minister said that the decision was taken to award the contract to India keeping in view diplomatic and political relations.