Delhi High Court reschedules hearings on Future, Amazon appeals

A division bench of the Delhi High Court, which hears appeals filed by Amazon and Future Retail against two orders by separate single-judge benches has rescheduled the hearings to May 27. Future Retail had appealed against an interim order by Justice JR Midha who in February put on hold a proposed deal to sell Future Group’s retail assets to Reliance Retail.

In its interim ruling, the court stated that the emergency award passed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre was enforceable in India. The division bench is also scheduled to hear Amazon’s appeal against Justice Mukta Gupta’s December order in which she had directed the statutory authorities, including the Competition Commission of India and Sebi, to act as per law in dealing with Amazon’s representations on the order by a Singapore arbitration court.

The buyout deal between Kishore Biyani-led Future Group and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is pending before the country's apex court. The Future Group had in August 2020 entered into an agreement with Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business for nearly Rs 26,000 crore.

As a part of the deal, Future Retail is supposed to sell its supermarket chain Big Bazaar and sister chain of retail outlets like Brand Factory, Home Town, Central, eZone and others to Reliance Retail.

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