New
Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement in the
Amazon-Future-Reliance case and will decide whether Singapore's Emergency
Arbitrator Award restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its
merger deal with Reliance Retail is valid under Indian law and if it can be
enforced.
A
bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman, after hearing arguments of all
parties in the case, reserved its verdict.
US-based
e-commerce giant Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC, and FRL are embroiled
in a legal fight over FRL's ? 24,713 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.
Earlier,
the bench had stayed further proceedings before single judge and division bench
of Delhi High Court in the Amazon-Future-Reliance case.
The
top court was hearing an appeal of e-commerce giant Amazon challenging Delhi
High Court''s decision to stay an order upholding an emergency arbitrator award
restraining Future Retail Limited (FRL) from going ahead with its ? 24,731
crore assets sale deal with Reliance Retail.
On
March 22, a division bench of High Court Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice
Jasmeet Singh had stayed a March 18 order of Justice JR Midha ordering
attachment of the assets of Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL), FRL, Kishore
Biyani and 10 other promoters.
Amazon
has been seeking enforcement of an order of the emergency arbitrator (EA) at
the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) restraining FRL from
taking any steps to transfer its retail assets.
Amazon
has a 49 per cent stake in FCPL, which in turn owns a 9.82 per cent stake in
FRL. Amazon's contention is that it has invested ? 1,431 crore in FCPL on the
clear understanding that FRL would be the sole vehicle for its retail business
and its retail assets would not be alienated without consent and never to a
restricted person.
FRL,
on the other hand, has objected to the enforcement of the EA award saying that
it is not an order under Section 17(1) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act
and hence not enforceable in India.
FRL
has contended that the ? 24,731 crore deal was very important to save its
25,000 employees. It had said that as per the deal, Reliance will not only take
over FRL's shops but also all its liabilities.
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