Delhi HC dismisses Nokia's petition refuses to stay BSNL ten

The Delhi High Court dismissed the petition filed by mobile firm Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) seeking to stay the tender floated by the state-run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for GSM lines. The telecom firm had floated a 93-million GSM line tender in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata zones. In its order, the HC asked the NSN to approach the appropriate court as the case des not fall under it’s jurisdiction. NSN, which was disqualified from the tendering process of BSNL on technical grounds, had also appealed to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Competition Commission of India and the Department of Telecommunications alleging non-transparency and tweaking of norms by BSNL. While the formal announcement for successful bidders is yet to be made, the legal dispute may disrupt BSNL’s expansion plans. Yesterday, NSN had filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court challenging its disqualification by BSNL. In 2007, another mobile equipment firm Motorola dragged the telecom firm to legal battle for disqualifying its bids. However, the case was settled out of court as the Motorala decided to withdrew the case.