KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has decided to stay the government’s decision to blacklist OBCI Pvt Ltd (Omni Group).
Issuing an interim order on Monday, the apex court told the Public Procurement Monitoring Office to not implement its decision to blacklist Omni Group and bar it from participating in government tenders.
In response to a writ petition filed by Omni Group’s Paras KC on Friday, seeking the apex court’s intervention to scrap the decision of blacklisting the firm, a single-bench led by Judge Purushottam Bhandari issued the stay order. The court’s interim order will now block the implementation process of blacklisting Omni Group.
The apex has summoned both petitioner and defendants for the next hearing on October 8 to decide whether to continue or vacate its interim order.
The government in April had scrapped the contract with Omni Group amidst widespread criticisms of purchasing medical equipment and testing kits to combat the coronavirus for higher than the market price. The Department had cited a failure to supply materials on time in its deciison to scrap the contract worth half a billion rupees.
Earlier on September 14, the Department had also recommended the PPMO to blacklist contractor Omni Group and disqualify it from participating in any government or public contracts for one year.
