Supreme Court issues notice to Future group on Amazon plea against Delhi HC stay

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to consider a plea by e-commerce giant Amazon against a Delhi High Court stay on proceedings before a Singapore arbitral tribunal against Future group’s ₹ 24,500 crore proposed deal with Reliance.

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A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana issued notice to Future Group companies, Future Retail Limited (FRL) and Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL), among other parties. The Bench listed the case for hearing on February 23.

When the hearing began with senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, for Amazon, introducing the case, the CJI referred to how the media had blown out of proportion his oral remarks addressed to Amazon on February 8, when the U.S. company had sought permission to file written statements in a case in which the judgment was already reserved.

The High Court had also stayed a single judge’s January 4 order that had dismissed the Future Group’s two pleas seeking a direction to the arbitration tribunal, adjudicating Amazon’s objections against the former’s deal with Reliance, to take a decision on its application for terminating the arbitration proceedings before moving further.

The Division Bench of the High Court had said there was a prima facie case in favour of appellants Future Retail Ltd. and Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd. and denial of stay would cause them irreparable loss.

“We hereby stay further proceedings of the arbitral tribunal till the next date of hearing and we also stay the single judge’s January 4 order till the next date of hearing,” the Bench had said while listing the matter for further hearing on February 1.

The High Court also issued a notice to Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC on the appeals filed by FRL and FCPL challenging the single judge’s order.

Amazon and the Future Group have been locked in a bitter legal tussle after the U.S. e-commerce giant dragged the latter to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre in October 2020. Amazon has argued that FRL violated their contract by entering into a deal for the sale of its assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for ₹24,500 crore.