Anushka Mansharamani
The Delhi High Court blocked the sale of a swathe of assets to Reliance Industries after Amazon raised objections to the $ 3.4 billion deal.
The Delhi High Court directed Future Retail to maintain status quo on the Future Retail-Reliance deal until ‘the pronouncement of the reserved order’.
The court stated that it was of a prima facie view that the Singapore tribunal order asked the company owned by Kishore Biyani to not proceed with the deal and the same would be enforceable in India.
The court stated the order passed by the Singapore Arbitration International Centre (SIAC) would be enforceable under the Arbitration Act and that the Future Group would have to place all steps taken post the order on record.
Once Future group stated that he was not bound by the arbitrator’s order, last month Amazon urged the Delhi High Court to enforce it.
Amazon had sought enforcements of the emergency award passed under the SIAC rules under Section 17(2) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act and alleged that Kishore Biyani and others had “deliberately and maliciously” disobeyed the Emergency Award despite their participation in the proceedings.
The decision taken comes as a setback for Future Retail as the company had agreed to sell its retail businesses to Reliance last year.
Future, in court arguments, had also accused Amazon of blocking its deal in an attempt to thwart any competition from Reliance, which has plans to expand into e-commerce.
Amazon at that point stated that it wanted to become a single largest shareholder of Future Retail, which it says “has an irreplaceable and widespread network” of outlets across India.