Dot Likely To Appeal Against Hfcl Verdict

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is likely to appeal against the single bench judgement of the Delhi High Court, which restrained it from invoking the bank guarantees tendered by HFCL Bezeq Telecom Ltd (HBTL) for executing basic telecom projects in the country.

It appears to be an appealable case, and the department will appeal to a division bench in Delhi High Court, sources in DoT said.

A letters patent appeal (LPA) against the single judge bench is likely to be filed soon, the sources said, adding that, recourse to the Supreme Court could not be ruled out. Meanwhile, HBTL which bagged the four circles - Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (West) and Orissa, is reportedly disinclined to provide services in any of these circles, though a formal decision is awaited. This recourse to appeal could lead to a spate of litigations which would adversely affect private investments in the telecom sector, industry sources said.

 

In a recent judgement on a writ petition by HBTL, Justice K Ramamoorthy had said DoT was not entitled to invoke the bank guarantees of the company. as the department did not act in accordance with the terms of tender documents.

The court had said that the question of forfeiture of earnest money by the department would arise only if the company was guilty of acting contrary to the tender document.

Justice Ramamoorthy said: as the department did not issue the letter of intent (LoI) within the bid validity period, it is clear that HBTL has not withdrawn the bid without any justifiable reasons.

Terming the non-fulfilment of the terms and conditions by the department as very serious the court said the LoI of March 4, 1996 was not at all in accordance with the terms of the tender document and therefore the department could not take advantage of its own mistakes.