In Monday’s interim ruling, the Delhi court also stayed the order directing Future Group to approach the authorities to recall all approvals granted to the Future-Reliance deal.
The legal dispute between Amazon and Future Group is also being heard in the Supreme Court.
Gopal Subramanium, the senior lawyer representing Amazon, told the division bench during Monday’s hearing that the company will be filing an application in the apex court seeking enforcement of the single judge’s interim order.
The division bench was hearing Future Group’s appeal against last week’s interim order by justice JR Midha in which he said Future Retail Ltd (FRL), Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), Biyani and others were in violation of the October ruling of the SIAC. The fine of ₹20 lakh was to be deposited with the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
On Monday, the division bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jasmeet Singh stayed the order by the single judge till the next hearing.
Last month, the Supreme Court had barred the National Company law Tribunal (NCLT) from taking a call on “sanctioning” the Future-Reliance deal.
“Since the issues are pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court in a Special Leave Petition filed by Amazon, the Hon’ble Division Bench also took on record the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order, which records that the proceedings before NCLT will be allowed to go without a final order of sanction of the scheme between Future Group and
,” Future Coupons said in a statement.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment as the matter is sub judice.
Deal Halted by SIAC
In August last year, Future Group had announced that Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) would acquire its retail assets for about Rs 25,000 crore. Subsequently, Amazon, which owns a 49% stake in FCPL, objected to the deal, alleging that it was in breach of a pact giving the ecommerce giant the right of first refusal. It contended that the 2019 Amazon-FCPL agreement also barred a sale of assets to entities including Reliance. FCPL is a Future Group holding company.
Following this, the US ecommerce giant approached the SIAC which, through the interim award, halted the deal until its final ruling
Lawyers for Future Group and Reliance Retail have been arguing for months that the SIAC doesn’t have jurisdiction and that the interim ruling wasn’t valid in India. However, Midha rejected the argument on Thursday while hearing Amazon’s appeal seeking enforcement of the SIAC ruling.
