A special leave petition (SLP’s) filed by Future Retail Ltd in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s order passed last month seeks an early hearing.
The Delhi HC put the deal to merge with Reliance Retail on hold and ordered the attachment of assets of FRL’s promoters and directors.
The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Amazon and upheld the Singapore EA’s award on August 6, halting the deal. In addition, the court ruled that the award is valid and enforceable under the Indian arbitration law.
On Friday, the senior counsels representing FRL, Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, requested that the appeal be heard as soon as possible. They told the court that if the petition wasn’t heard immediately, it would have a long bearing impact on Future Retail, its promoters and its directors.
Delhi HC’s verdict:
Earlier last month, the Delhi High Court upheld an interim award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator (EA) stopping FRL from going ahead with the deal. The decision said that it will enforce the earlier order of the single judge bench blocking FRL from completing the transaction.
In addition, the court asked the parties to file an affidavit setting out their assets and explaining why they shouldn’t be detained for three months under civil imprisonment for violating the EA’s order.
The promoter of Future Retail, Kishore Biyani, and 15 other people have been embroiled in litigation with Amazon, an investor in Future Retail, over the deal with Reliance.
Special Leave Petition:
The SLPs were listed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 9th September 2021 stayed all the proceedings before the Delhi High Court for four weeks related to the implementation of an award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead of its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, in a consent order, also directed the statutory authorities like National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Competition Commission of India (CCI) and market regulator SEBI not to pass any final order related to the merger deal for next four weeks.
