The Supreme Court has dismissed writ petitions filed by French company IN Groupe (Idemia), which had challenged the government’s decision to award the contract to print Nepali passports to a German company. 

A division bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Shrikanta Poudel on Monday dismissed four writ petitions pending before the Supreme Court in connection with the dispute. The court, however, issued a directive order in a separate writ petition filed by advocate Kusum Kishor Koirala. The full text of the verdict has not yet been released.

The ruling provides relief to German company Veridos, which secured the passport-printing contract and is currently printing Nepali passports.

Idemia had moved the Supreme Court after it was denied the new contract to print Nepali passports. The company had alleged that Nepali officials had denied it the contract through a pre-arranged process.

The Supreme Court dismissed three writ petitions filed by Idemia. It also issued a directive order on another petition seeking that passports continue to be printed at the Security Printing Centre. The other petitions were dismissed, according to the court’s ruling.

Idemia, which has been supplying passports to Nepal for around 15 years, registered its writ petition at the Supreme Court on August 11, 2025, challenging the government’s decision.

The company named the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Passports, the department’s bid evaluation committee, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Security Printing Development Committee, Security Printing Centre and its board, then director general of the Department of Passports Tirtha Raj Aryal, and Public Procurement Monitoring Office as defendants.