Future Retail Is Back At Supreme Court In Case Against Amazon

Future Group has filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court verdict passed against it in March this year.

A single judge bench of Justice JR Midha had found Future Retail Ltd., its promoter entities, founder Kishore Biyani and several others in wilful violation of the emergency arbitrator's interim order, which went in favour of Amazon.com Inc in October 2020.

The emergency arbitrator had put on hold the Rs 27,513 crore transaction between Future Group entities and Reliance Retail Ventures. Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC then moved the Delhi High Court seeking enforcement of the emergency arbitrator's interim order.

As a legal remedy, an SLP can be filed against orders which are otherwise non-appealable, corporate lawyer Sitesh Mukherjee told BloombergQuint.

But the chances of a SLP being maintainable are very, very low, he added.

Last week, while upholding the validity of an emergency arbitrator, the apex court had interpreted several provisions of the Arbitration Act.

It had concluded that arbitration law doesn’t contemplate any appeals against enforcement orders passed under Section 17(2). The provision says that an interim order of an arbitral tribunal will be enforced in the same manner as if it was an order of a court under the provisions of the Code Of Civil Procedure.

In interpreting so, the apex court held last week that the division bench of the Delhi High Court could not have stayed Justice Midha's enforcement order.

Hence, the Future Group has taken recourse to a SLP in the Supreme Court.