HONG KONG – The selection process that chose "Eklavya – the Royal Guard" as India 's candidate for the foreign language Oscar looks "prima facie biased."

That was the preliminary finding of the Mumbai High Court on Saturday in response to a complaint from Bhavna Talwar, producer of rival "Dharm."

She argued that her film was not selected because the 11-man jury appointed by the Film Federation of India included Sudhir Mishra and Jagdish Sharma, members well known to "Eklavya" producer-helmer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It since emerged that another juror was film editor Ranjit Bahadur, who put together DVD sections for "Eklavya."

"We felt that since certain members of the jury were personally known to 'Eklavya''s producer, this direct nexus could have led to a bias," Talwar's lawyer Vineet Naik said on Saturday. "Eklavya" won the selection over "Dharm" on a six to five final vote.

Chopra said that he had no idea of the composition of the jury until after its selection had been made.

The court said that the FFI and other parties need to provide evidence by Oct 10, well after the Academy of Motion Pictures ' deadline for accepting submission, when it will decide whether or not to hear Talwar's petition.

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