The Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear Amazon's appeal against a Delhi High Court injunction on proceedings before a Singapore arbitral tribunal regarding Future Group's proposed 24,500 crore merger with Reliance Industries.
Future Group firms Future Retail Limited (FRL) and Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL), among others, were served with a notice by a three-judge bench chaired by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana. The case was set for hearing on February 23 by the Bench.
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 judgement had already been reserved when the hearing began with senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam for Amazon introducing the case.
The High Court also stayed a single judge's January 4 order dismissing the Future Group's two pleas for a direction to the arbitration tribunal adjudicating Amazon's objections to the former's deal with Reliance to decide on its application for terminating the arbitration proceedings before proceeding.
The High Court's Division Bench found that the appellants Future Retail Ltd. and Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd. had a prima facie case, and that denying them a stay would suffer them irreparable harm.
"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.
On the appeals filed by FRL and FCPL disputing the single judge's order, the High Court also issued a notice to Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC.
After dragging the Future Group to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre in October 2020, Amazon and the Future Group have been involved in a bitter legal battle. Amazon claims that FRL breached their contract by agreeing to sell its assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,500 crore.