The Delhi High Court has rejected Future Retail’s plea seeking termination of the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon before the Singapore International Arbitration Court (SIAC). On Tuesday the arbitration before the SIAC will continue, Justice C Hari Shankar said.
Amazon, on November 17, had moved the Supreme Court for allowing arbitration proceedings to restart at the SIAC. This paves the way for Amazon to continue its arbitration proceedings with Future Group which will commence on 28 November.
Last month FRL had approached the Delhi HC against the Singapore arbitral tribunal’s order that dismissed its plea to terminate arbitration proceedings arguing that there was a “stark abdication of jurisdiction” by SIAC. It had further stated that the approval for the agreement based on which Amazon approached SIAC has been kept in abeyance by the Competition Commission of India.
The proceedings were initiated by Amazon against the ₹24,713 crore deal between FRL and Reliance Retail. Amazon’s basis was that it had invested ₹1,400 crore in Future Coupons. It is one of the sister concerns of FRL and also one of its promoters, which does not allow Future to sell retail assets to certain companies, including Reliance.
‘Ploy to delay proceedings’
During the hearing on November 17, the CJI had made it clear that it will not allow stalling of arbitral proceedings pending before SIAC sanctity of such proceedings needed to be maintained.
“You cannot keep stultifying the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal and this is just a ploy to delay the proceedings. All ploys by well-heeled parties to delay the arbitration...Your client is trying to be too clever by half. As a Chief Justice of this court I am concerned.” the CJI told Future Group’s counsel.
Amid all this, its lenders had dragged Future Retail to the NCLT over multiple defaults. A Resolution Professional has been appointed who had invited Expression of Interest (EOI). Adani, Reliance Industries, among several other players.