Future seeks early hearing of appeal in Supreme Court in Reliance deal

NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani-owned Future Retail Ltd (FRL) has sought an early hearing for its special leave petition filed in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order passed last month seeking to stall the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail and attach assets of FRL’s promoters and directors.

Chief Justice NV Ramana, heading a three-judge bench, will now take a call on a request by the Future Group. In March this year, the Delhi High Court had held Future Group chief Kishore Biyani and other company directors guilty of proceeding with the deal.

Back then, the court had also issued show-cause notices to Future Group directors on Amazon’s plea, asking why they shouldn’t be sent to jail for violating court orders. The Delhi High Court also upheld the interim award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining FRL from going ahead with the deal. The single-judge bench of Justice JR Midha, had asked FRL to move regulators to revoke the nod granted to the deal.

On August 6, the Supreme Court, too, ruled in favour of Amazon and upheld the Singapore EA’s award, restraining the merger deal. The high court said that in the absence of any stay from the apex court, it has no option but to enforce the order passed by its single judge on March 18. The high court order will have a long bearing impact on Future Retail, its promoters and its directors if the petition wasn’t heard immediately, said senior counsels Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for FRL.

In March this year

The Delhi High Court had held Future Group chief Kishore Biyani and other company directors guilty of proceeding with the deal. The court had also issued show-cause notices to FRL directors, asking why they shouldn’t be sent to jail for violating court orders.