The Delhi high court has upheld ONGC's [Get Quote] decision not to award contract to Malaysia-based Ramunia Fabricators Sdn Bhd for development of B-22 oil field in Mumbai offshore.

Dismissing the petition of the company, a Division Bench headed by Justice Manmohan Sarin said that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation was right in rejecting its bid for the project.

"We are prima facie of the view that the plea of loss of confidence taken by the ONGC in the petitioners for having failed to furnish the performance guarantee appears to be justifiable deserving credence," the bench also comprising Justice Veena Birbal said.

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by the Malaysian company seeking court's direction to award the contract to it which was earlier given to L&T but was later cancelled paving the way for fresh bidding.

ONGC had invited bids in May 2007 for its B-22 field development project in which L&T and the Malaysian firm had participated.

The Oil exploration major, while awarding contract to L&T, had dismissed the bid of Ramunia on the ground that the tender documents had been purchased by one company while the bid was submitted by the other.

The contract given to the Indian construction giant was, however, cancelled after the High Court directed the ONGC to consider Ramunia's bid.

The company, not satisfied with the cancellation of the contract, again approached the Court seeking direction to the oil company to award contract in its favour as its bid was the lowest.

The company contended that it had bid $108 million lower than L&T and therefore it should be awarded the contract. The court, however, went with the view of the ONGC that since Ramunia had not submitted bank guarantee,  in a previous contract, it stood disqualified.