The fate of the Rs 27,513 crores Future Retail-Reliance Group deal hangs in uncertainty as the Supreme Court issued a notice to Future Retail, on the Amazon’s appeal against the Delhi High Court’s division bench order of February 8, which allowed the deal to proceed.
Although, allowing the NCLT to continue hearings on amalgamation proceedings between Future Retail and Reliance Group, without the nod of the apex court, the final approval of the deal cannot be granted. Future Retail will have to send its response within 3 weeks, while Amazon will have two weeks to file its counter response. The case is likely to be classified for hearing before the Supreme Court during the last week of March.
In the high-stakes case, notices were issued to Future Retail and RIL by a bench headed by Justice R.F. Nariman, both of which were represented in the court today. The court notices put these businesses under a legal requirement, within three weeks, to formally bring their legal submissions to court.
The agreement between Future and RIL was opposed by Amazon, which has a 49 percent stake in Future Retail. It has already won an international arbitration on this, in Singapore and has also moved the High Court to take action against Kishore Biyani of Future Retail for breaching an agreement that in some way prevented it from dealing with RIL.
Initially, Amazon’s High Court proceedings were in its favour, with a single judge ordering the status quo on the contract. But the status quo has recently been reversed by a division bench, enabling all regulatory and legislative proceedings against the transaction to continue.
