The Supreme Court has issued an interim order asking the government not to proceed with the printing contract of Machine Readable Passport (MRP) on Wednesday.

The SC in its order directed the government to suspend the process until its next hearing, which has been scheduled for Monday.

Two separate writ petitions, including one by advocate Hem Mani Subedi, were filed at the apex court on Tuesday demanding cancellation of the printing contract, given to India.

The government lent the contract to Indian company at USD 4 per piece though the earlier bidders had proposed to supply at as low as USD 2.99 per piece. The government ignored the direction given by the Public Account Committee (PAC) of the parliament which had asked the government to follow proper bidding process to lend contract.

On Monday, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal speaking at the PAC meeting had mentioned the government was compelled to lend the contract due to political and diplomatic pressure. nepalnews.com