The Supreme Court struck a balance between the interests of Amazon and Reliance Industries (RIL), engaged in a high stakes litigation from Singapore to Delhi over the Kishore Biyani-led group’s ‘Future Retail’. The apex court stalled the Delhi HC proceedings over enforcement of emergency arbitrator’s (EA’s) interim award halting the RIL’s £2.5 billion offer to take over retail chain.
If on one hand, it stopped enforcement of the Singapore-based EA’s interim award being sought to be enforced by Amazon through a petition in the HC, the court, on the other, restrained the statutory authorities - National Company Law Board, Competition Commission of India and markets regulator Sebi - from giving any final approval to RIL’s deal with the Biyani group for taking over the retail chain, which went into the red during the pandemic.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna patiently heard big guns appearing for both sides - senior advocates Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi and K V Vishwanathan for Future Group companies, and Gopal Subramaniam for Amazon. But, at the end, it passed the order with the express consent of the two sides, stalling precipitation of the matter for a period of four weeks.
The bench was of the view that since Future Group companies - Future Coupons and Future Retail - have questioned the EA’s interim award and the Singapore-based arbitral tribunal has heard both sides and reserved verdict, it would be better to await the outcome of this proceeding.
Amazon has 49% stake in Future Coupons, which in turn owns 9.8% shares in Future Retail. The CJI-led bench said, “Heard senior counsel for the parties at length and carefully perused the material placed on record. Issue notice...This order has been passed with the consent of both the parties. List after four weeks.
