The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed pleas by Future Group companies to direct the arbitration tribunal adjudicating on Amazon’s objections against their deal with Reliance, to decide on their termination applications first before continuing with the arbitration proceedings.
Justice Amit Bansal noted the grievance of the Future Group was that in terms of the December 2021 orders of the arbitral tribunal, no date had been fixed for a hearing on their termination applications.
“The said grievance... stands redressed by the subsequent email dated January 1, 2022 of the Arbitral Tribunal in terms of which the date of January 8, 2022 has been fixed for hearing on the termination applications,” he said.
Future Coupons and Future Retail Ltd. had also contended the Tribunal was continuing with hearings in respect of expert witnesses, while deferring those on the termination application.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing FCPL, argued that the hearing of the termination applications should have taken priority over the hearings of the expert witnesses as the said applications go to the very root of the matter and the arbitration proceedings would not survive if the applications filed on behalf of his client were allowed.
Senior advocate Rohatgi argued that his termination application was based on the December 17, 2021 order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in which the earlier approval granted by it in respect of the agreement between FCPL and Amazon has been kept in abeyance.
“I do not find merit in this submission. Just because the hearing of the termination applications is scheduled for a date after the hearings of the expert witnesses does not mean that the Arbitral Tribunal is not willing to consider the said applications on merits or is discounting the merits of the said applications,” the high court said.
The US-based e-commence giant Amazon, which has 49 per cent stake in FCPL, is embroiled in fiercely fought legal battles with Future Group after the Kishore Biyani-led group in August 2020 agreed to sell its assets to Reliance Retail.
Amazon has been objecting to the Future group-Reliance deal contending that it has invested ₹1,400 crore in FCPL in 2019.
In December last year, antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) kept the 2019 deal between Amazon and Future Group in abeyance and imposed a penalty of ₹202 crore on Amazon “for providing false information” and “suppressing material particulars”.
