SC to hear Amazon’s plea against Delhi HC verdict on July 20, in Future-Reliance deal

The Supreme Court will hear Amazon’s plea against the Delhi High Court verdict on July 20. The verdict had stayed the directive by its single-judge and paved the way for the multi-billion dollar deal to amalgamate Future Retail (FRL) with Reliance Retail.

On February 22, the top court had asked the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) not to pass the final order on the amalgamation.

Amazon moved the top court against the order of the Delhi High Court division bench which paved the way for the Reliance-FRL deal.

On February 8, the division bench had stayed the single judge direction to FRL and various statutory authorities to maintain status quo on the mega deal.

The interim direction was passed on FRL's appeal challenging the February 2 order of the single judge.

The high court division bench had also declined Amazon's request to keep its order in abeyance for a week so that it can explore appropriate remedies.

In August last year, the Future group had reached an agreement to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance.

Subsequently, Amazon took FRL into an emergency arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) over an alleged breach of contract by the Future group.

Amazon had first filed a plea before the high court (single judge) for enforcement of the October 25, 2020 Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award by SIAC restraining FRL from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail.