On an application filed by the ACC Vickers Babcock Employees' Union, under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution, justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta directed on August 31 that: "There will be an order of status quo as of today with regard to the award of contract from NTPC to Bhel." The case will come up for hearing on September 3, according to the ACC Vickers solicitor firm Singhania & Co.

ABB-ABL is the Indian counterpart of Combustion Engineering Inc of USA which lost out to Bhel for the contract. The Indian outfit's employees union still retain the partner ACC name, though it has a 4-per cent holding in ABB-ABL.

On August 9, the NTPC board awarded the boiler supply contract to Bhel over its competing bidder ABB-Combustion Engineering Inc of USA. While Bhel quoted a price of Rs 1,381 crore, Bhel's quotation was far lowerat Rs 1,304 crore.

Reacting to the order, general secretary ABB-ABL trade union, Tapash Saha, said: "The high court decision has vindicated our stand on the irregularities in the tendering process for the Talcher project. This stay order will send a positive signal to all parties involved in the power sector and help in creating a healthy environment for future power project tendering".

Following the rejection, Combustion Engineering sought opinions from legal experts like former chief justice of India AN Ahmadi and former additional solicitor general AM Singhvi among others. Apart from Ahmadi and Singhvi, two other legal experts -- both of whom are former judges of the Delhi high court -- had noted that the contract should have been bagged by ABB-CE.

ABB-CE had sought interventions of the central vigilance commissioner N Vittal and chief election commissioner MS Gill. While Vittal sought clarifications from both the Union power ministry and NTPC, the CEC is yet to react.

In fact, Singhvi in hisopinion to ABB-CE had noted that the awarding of contract to Bhel by NTPC violated the CVC guidelines of December 1998, which had banned post-tender negotiations. CE president Fritz Gautschi sought the intervention of Union power secretary VK Pandit and urged him to give an open and fair hearing into the circumstances surrounding the disqualification.

Similar to the view expressed by former chief justice Ahmadi, Gautschi also felt that the entire bidding process had a "predetermined outcome" since Bhel was being given a chance to match ABB-CE's price. Apart from this, CE management had apprised the United States government and World Bank officials on the issue.

Earlier this month, ACC Vickers Babcock Employees' Union filed an application before the Calcutta high court. Apart from NTPC and Bhel, the other parties in the case are -- the Union government, ABB ABL Ltd and ABB Combustion Engineering Inc of USA.