Nokia to appeal tax dispute case at Supreme Court hearing on Monday

Nokia last month appealed to the Indian Supreme Court saying the Delhi High Court had imposed "new conditions" over transfer of the plant, after previously allowing it.

The Supreme Court's website showed Nokia's appeal was listed to be heard on Monday. The court does not usually give a verdict on the first day of hearing.

Microsoft is buying Nokia's mobile phone business in a 5.4 billion euro deal.

Nokia last week, after the launch of its Nokia X family of Android-based smartphones at MWC 2014, said that more such Android-based devices would be made by the company, despite the Microsoft deal.

Jussi Nevanlinna, Vice President for Mobile Phone marketing for Nokia, answered a series of questions at MWC, including one that directly addressed the 'strange' timing of the announcement.

"I can't speak on Microsoft's behalf; what I can say is our strategy with Mobile Phones has been, and remains, connecting the next billion," said Nevanlinna. "Microsoft is equally focussed on 'mobile first; cloud first'."

Nokia believes that the Android-based X platform is one approach to compete in the affordable smartphone market. Nokia not only plans to release more Nokia X smartphones, it is also aiming for lower price points. The company says there's no competition with Lumia phones, since the Nokia X series is targeted at consumers who can't afford Lumia devices.

"Lumia remains our primary smartphone platform and we continue to push the prices down, Nokia X addresses price points that are generally lower than those reached by Lumia, and we'll keep pushing the Nokia X prices down even further, " Nevanlinna added.

Written with inputs from Reuters