India, Oct. 15 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday held that Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance, a company tasked by the state to build Common Service Centres, cannot be penalised for delays in the project caused by a lack of broadband connectivity in remote areas.

Amid the delays and petitions filed by the company and the state, the government had withheld releasing funds to complete the project. Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan dismissed cross-petitions filed by the two parties, removing the last legal hurdle in the long-drawn contractual dispute that had stalled the project.

The case arose from a 2011 agreement between the state government and the company to establish 1,362 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in rural and semi-urban areas of the stat...