Future Group’s plea for termination of arbitration proceedings has been dismissed by the Delhi HC.
The proceedings had been initiated by Amazon at the Singapore International Arbitration Court (SIAC).
The arbitration before the SIAC will continue, Justice C Hari Shankar said on Tuesday.
Amazon, on November 17, had moved the Supreme Court for allowing arbitration proceedings to restart at the SIAC.
At that hearing, representing Amazon NV Investment Holding LLC, senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam had pointed out how Future Group was trying to stall the proceedings.
Hearing the case, CJI Chandrachud had noted that Future Group has filed more than 200 petitions to stall the proceedings.
The case pertains to Amazon’s investment in Future Coupons, over which a feud has been going on for more than a year.
The arbitration proceedings at SAIC had started in October 2020, following Kishore Biyani-led Future’s proposal to sell its retail, wholesale & logistics assets to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance for Rs 24,713 crore.
The legal battle started once Future’s sale plan was made public, with Amazon opposing the deal with RIL on the ground that the Rs 1,400 crore in had invested in Future Coupons (a promoter of Future Retail) “does not allow Future to sell retail assets to certain companies, including Reliance.”
The tribunal, which had ruled in favour of a continuation of the proceedings, is going for the final hearing on November 28.
“You cannot keep stultifying the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal and this is just a ploy to delay the proceedings…All ploys by well-heeled parties to delay the arbitration…Your client is trying to be too clever by half… As a Chief Justice of this court I am concerned.” the CJI told Future Group’s counsel on November 17.
The Future Group had gone to SAIC with a plea to terminate the proceedings. The SAIC, in June 28, had dismissed the plea. Future subsequently moved the Delhi HC against SIAC’s move.
It may be noted here that the Future Retail-Reliance Retail deal has been called off by Reliance Industries.
