In a breather for Future Retail, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Delhi High Court order declining stay on the Singapore arbitration tribunal’s decision. The Future group had appealed against the Emergency Award (EA) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) which had ruled in favour of Amazon.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli remanded the pleas of Future group firms relating to arbitral award on merger deal with Reliance Retail back to the Delhi High Court.
“We set aside the impugned orders dated February 2, 2021 and March 18, 2021 and other impugned order dated October 29, 2021. We direct the learned (HC) judge to consider the issue and pass an order on its own merits uninfluenced by observations,” the bench said.
It further asked the HC to set up a special bench for speedy disposal of the case.
After facing acute cash crunch post-Covid last year, the Kishore Biyani-owned Future Retail decided to sell its assets to Reliance Retail. The sale, included the acquisition of the retail, wholesale, and logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for ₹24,731 crore.
This deal was contested by Amazon, which invested ₹1,400 crore in Future Retail’s sister concern Future Coupons Private Limited. In October, the American eCommerce giant dragged the retail chain into arbitration at SIAC
Meanwhile, Amazon has recently offered to infuse more funds in Future Group, which has been rejected by the Kishore Biyani company.