Delhi High Court has pushed for compliance for its single judge bench order directing attachment of Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), Future Retail Limited (FRL) and Biyani assets in the Amazon vs Future case. The court has also directed that failure to secure a stay from Supreme Court will cause Delhi HC to enforce its order.

FCPL has informed Delhi HC that a challenge has been filed to Delhi HC order attaching assets.

"Either get a stay within 2-3 weeks on March 18 order or comply with the order. This court has no third option," the judge said.

Listing the matter for further hearing on September 17, the court said: I make it clear that if before the next date of hearing the respondents fail to get any stay order, this court shall proceed with the matter for implementation of the order dated March 18.

Senior advocate Parag Tripathi, representing Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) and other related parties, said that a special leave petition against the March 18 order has already been filed before the Supreme Court by his clients. Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing FRL, said that his client has moved an application before the arbitration tribunal and will also file an appeal before the apex court.

On March 18, besides restraining FRL from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail, Justice Midha had imposed costs of Rs 20 lakh on the Future Group and others associated with it and ordered attachment of their properties. The court had asked the parties to file an affidavit detailing their assets within one month and show cause as to why they are not detained under civil prison for 3 months for violating the emergency arbitrator’s order.

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Earlier this month, the Supreme Court held that Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator (EA) order is enforceable. The apex court pronounced the verdict on Amazon's pleas against the merger of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail and held the EA award, restraining the Rs 24,731 crore deal.

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A Bench of Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai had reserved the verdict on July 29 after hearing a battery of lawyers including senior advocates Harish Salve and Gopal Subramanium, appearing for FRL and Amazon respectively.

The judgement addressed the limited issue of enforceability of the Emergency Arbitrator’s order and it does not address not the merits of the disputes

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Aug 17, 2021 1:56 PM IST