As part of its fresh appeal, Future Retail Ltd(FRL) has asked the Supreme Court for an early hearing on its fresh appeal against a recent Delhi High Court order that said it would enforce an earlier order restraining FRL from proceeding with its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.
The Supreme Court stated that it will list the case after determining its availability.
Delhi High Court had previously stated that Future would be required to comply with the attachment order if it failed to obtain a stay from the Supreme Court.
On September 16, the Delhi High Court will hear the Amazon-Future dispute.
After hearing Amazon's request for enforcement of the Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator's award preventing FRL from moving forward with the deal, the high court said on August 17 that it would enforce the earlier order of the single judge bench prohibiting FRL from moving forward with the deal.On March 18, the high court ruled that in the absence of a stay from the supreme court, the court had no choice but to enforce the single judge's order.
Senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for FRL, asked the bench, which also included Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, for an early hearing of the appeal because the high court would go ahead with the enforcement of EA's award if the top court did not grant a stay in its favour.
According to Rohatgi, if the Future group and others do not get a favourable order from the apex court, then contempt proceedings will be initiated. Only by filing an appeal will FRL gain any advantage, the high court had ruled.
The supreme court ruled on august 6 that Singapore EA's award restraining the Rs 24,731 crore FRL-Reliance Retail merger deal is valid and enforceable under Indian arbitration laws, according to the court. As well, the Supreme Court overturned the Delhi High Court division bench's orders of February 8 and March 22, which had lifted the single judge's orders preventing the FRL-RRL merger.