Synopsis: The Supreme Court on Thursday postponed its decision on Amazon’s appeals against the Rs 24,713 crore merger of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and Reliance Retail.
Amazon and Future Retail are locked in a fierce legal battle over the merger. The US-based company asked the Supreme Court to declare the Singapore Emergency Arbitrator (EA) judgment, which barred FRL from proceeding with the merger, lawful and enforceable.
After senior attorneys Harish Salve and Gopal Subramanium, representing FRL and Amazon respectively, finished their submissions in the matter, a bench of justices R F Nariman and B R Gavai said “So we close the case now. The judgement is reserved”
FRL’s lawyer, Salve, referred to court rulings on the validity and enforceability of arbitral decisions, claiming that there was no concept of EA under Indian law on arbitration and conciliation, and that there was no arbitration agreement to that effect.
There was no provision for EA under the Indian Law and “it cannot be done by the process of construction”, Salve was referring to a single-judge ruling from the Delhi High Court that declared the EA’s judgement genuine.
Amazon, on the other hand, has told the bench that the Future Group’s Biyanis discussed with it to enter into specific agreements and that they are constrained by Singapore’s EA ruling prohibiting FRL from proceeding with its merger with Reliance Retail. It reaffirmed the enforceability of EA’s judgment.
Amazon had appealed to the Supreme Court against a division bench ruling issued by the Delhi High Court that cleared the way for the Reliance-FRL agreement.
The single-judge order directing FRL and several statutory entities to maintain the status quo on the mammoth deal was delayed on February 8 by the division bench.
The interim order was issued in response to FRL’s appeal of a single judge’s February 2 ruling in favor of the US corporation, stating that the EA’s judgement was valid and enforceable.
Amazon had first filed a petition in the high court (single judge) seeking implementation of the EA judgement issued by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) on October 25, 2020, preventing FRL from proceeding with the deal with Reliance Retail.
The Future group agreed to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing operations to Reliance in August of last year. Following that, Amazon filed an EA complaint against FRL with the SIAC, alleging that the Future group had breached a contract.
