Delhi HC to hear Future group’s appeal against single judge order today

On February 2, justice Midha had asked FRL to maintain “status quo” on its ₹24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail

The Delhi high court on Monday will hear Future Retail Limited (FRL)’s appeal against the single judge order which upheld the Singapore Emergency Arbitrator ( EA) award to stall its 3.4 million USD deal with Reliance retail group.

A file photo of Delhi high court. (HT Archive)

A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jasmeet Singh is likely to hear the plea. The single judge’s order had come after a plea by US retail giant Amazon sought action against the Kishore Biyani-led Future group for their violation of the EA’s order.

The plea had also sought the detention of Future group founders, including CEO Kishore Biyani, and seizure of their assets as it sought to block Future group from selling retail assets to Reliance Industries.

On March 18, justice JR Midha upheld the Singapore’s EA order stalling the deal.

The court also sought to know as to why the owners and directors should not be kept in civil detention for three months for their “deliberate” and “willful” violation of the EA’s order.

Justice JR Midha also directed FRL not to take any further steps regarding the violation of the order. Midha also asked FRL to file an affidavit declaring all its assets within 30 days.

On October 25, 2020, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre had passed an interim order in favour of Amazon barring FRL from taking any step to dispose of or encumber its assets or issuing any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party.

However, the FRL had contended that the EA’s award is not enforceable.

On February 2, justice Midha had asked FRL to maintain “status quo” on its ₹24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail. The judge had also directed all the authorities like SEBI, NCLT to also maintain status quo regarding the deal while also asking them to list out all the steps and actions taken after the order of the Emergency Arbitrator of Singapore.

The challenge to this order is pending adjudication in the Supreme Court. On February 8, a division bench of the Delhi high court had stayed the single judge’s findings and given a go-ahead for the deal. This order was later challenged in the Supreme Court by Amazon.