Pinnacle Court keeps out Delhi High Court order on emergency award Amazon - Future dispute
The Top Court today keeps out the Delhi High Court order of October 29, 2021 refusing to stay the award passed by a Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) tribunal which had restrained Future Group from going ahead with its ₹24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.
In a big relief to Future group, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and comprising of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohlialso kept out the high court's order of February 2 last year, by which it had directed Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to maintain status quo in relation to the merger deal.
The March 18 order of the high court, upholding the EA's award and imposing a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it as well as its directors, has also been kept out.
Meanwhile, Future Group is on interim Relief. The writ petition 48/22 was filed after the order was reserved. The petition will be heard in due course.
The four petitions before the Supreme Court have been filed by Future Coupons Private Ltd (FCPL) and Future Retail Ltd (FRL).
Future Group has also challenged the Delhi HC order that had imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it along with an attachment of its properties.
Recently, Kishore Biyani-led FRL had moved the apex court to avert insolvency proceedings over missing a loan repayment deadline, even as its independent directors rejected an Amazon-supported offer to sell the company businesses at less than a third of what Reliance is offering.
The Supreme Court had reserved orders after hearing Senior Advocates Harish Salve(for Future Coupons), Mukul Rohatgi (for Future Retail), Gopal Subramaniam and Aspi Chinoy for Amazon.
Chief Justice NV Ramana said he would request the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to set up a bench for speedy disposal of the case.
US e-commerce major Amazon has been opposing the Future group decision to go ahead with the merger deal of FRL with Reliance Retail.
The US firm got the EA of SIAC in its favour which restrained Future group from going ahead with the merger deal. The EA award was upheld in the final arbitral award of October, 2021.
The Apex court, on January 11, had reserved its judgement and said that it wanted to send the case back to the Delhi High Court to render a finding on the enforceability of the SIAC award restraining FRL's sale of assets to Reliance Retail.
The apex court reserved its order on two sets of petitions filed by FCPL (Future Coupons Private Ltd ) and FRL (Future Retail Ltd).
One set of appeals challenged the March 18 order of the Delhi High Court which besides restraining FRL from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail, had imposed costs of Rs 20 lakh on the Future Group and others associated with it and ordered attachment of their properties.
Today’s judgment was delivered on a batch of pleas filed by Future Group firms against a Delhi High Court order declining stay on the tribunal's decision refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA) of the SIAC.
