New Delhi: New Delhi High Court on Thursday temporarily stopped state-run telephone service company BSNL Ltd from awarding a large contract following complaints from Motorola Inc that it was disqualified from bidding.
The US telecommunications equipment maker filed a case in the High Court on October 9 after BSNL Ltd opened bids for an estimated $5 billion contract that involved laying phone lines and supplying third-generation equipment.
Motorola was disqualified from the bidding process on technical grounds, while Sweden-based Ericsson emerged as a favorite. Media reports said Ericsson offered to execute the contract at a cost averaging $107 per line.
The High Court on Thursday asked BSNL not to award the contract until it hears the case, said Mukul Rohtagi, a lawyer representing Motorola.
Rohtagi said the order came after he sought more time to respond to BSNL's explanation to the court that Motorola didn't ''fulfill some eligibility conditions.''
''We are going to put in a response explaining why and how we meet all the conditions,'' Rohtagi said, without giving details.
The next hearing is scheduled for November 16.
BSNL Ltd is the only company offering landline and mobile phone services across all states and federal territories. Its officials declined to comment on the court order.
Motorola didn't issue any official statement.
In an October 9 note, the company had said it was ''surprised and extremely concerned by the BSNL decision.''
At the time, the company said it had been in discussions with BSNL, and at no point was Motorola told its bid was being dropped because of technical reasons.
Other bidders for the BSNL contract included Finland's Nokia Corp., Germany's Siemens AG and Chinese telecom giant ZTE. The Chinese company also was disqualified on technical reasons.
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