Future Retail said on Wednesday, that Amazon has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order, that stayed a single judge’s order preventing Future Retail Ltd, from proceeding with its Rs 24,713 crore deals to sell its business to Reliance Retail.
“The company’s advocates have received correspondence dated April 13, 2021, from advocates of Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC, informing that Amazon has filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court of India against the captioned order dated March 22, 2021, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi,” Future Retail told stock exchanges.
On March 22, the Delhi High Court stayed a single judge’s order preventing Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from proceeding with the deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which had been challenged by the US-based e-commerce giant Amazon. Future Retail said that it would “defend the matter/proceedings through our legal counsels.”
A division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh also provided notice to Amazon on Future Group’s appeal challenging the single judge’s March 18 decision on the contract, which dismissed all of their objections. The bench said, “We hereby stay the order of the single judge dated March 18, 2021, until the next date of hearing,” and set the matter for further hearing on April 30.
It also stayed the single judge’s order attaching Kishore Biyani’s and others’ belongings, directing them to appear in court on April 28. The bench stayed the single judge’s order imposing a Rs 20 lakh fine on the Future Group and its directors, instructing them to deposit the money in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund within two weeks for use in providing COVID-19 vaccination to senior citizens from Delhi’s Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.
The single judge’s order came in response to Amazon’s request for a path to order implementation of the award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator (EA) on October 25, 2020, preventing Future Retail from proceeding with its Rs 24,713 crore contract with Reliance Retail.
Future Group and Amazon are embroiled in a legal dispute after Amazon filed an emergency arbitration request against FRL for alleged violation of a contract between them. Amazon took Future Group to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in October 2020, claiming that the company breached the contract by agreeing with rival Reliance.
Amazon invested in Future Coupons in August 2019, with the option to buy into the flagship Future Retail after three to ten years. Future Retail agreed to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing units to Reliance in August of last year.
