The Supreme Court of India, on Thursday, initiated a hold on all the legal proceedings before the Delhi High Court for the next four weeks in order to execute an award by Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator (EA) debarring Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to proceed with its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal in partnership with the Reliance Retail.
A legal bench chaired by Chief Justice N V Ramana, ordered the statutory authorities, such as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Competition Commission of India (CCI) and capital market regulator Sebi in a consent order. This was done in order to endorse the stay order on the final dispatch related to the merger deal for the upcoming four weeks.
The top court gave due consideration to the statements of Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared in the court for FRL and Future Coupons Private Ltd (FCPL), after which the final verdict came in after hearing to both sides.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, defending the e-commerce company Amazon who condemned the merger, said that it was not interested in any punitive action against FRL, FCPL and their Directors and consented to pass of the order staying the proceedings before the Delhi High Court.
On August 17, The FRL and FCPL which have arrived at the top court against the decision of the panel of the Delhi Court order averred that it would implement the earlier order by its single-judge restraining FRL from going ahead with the deal in pursuance of the EA’s award.
Earlier on August 6, the Top Court gave the final verdict in the favour of Amazon and stated that the Singapore EA’s award is absolutely logical and juridical under the Indian arbitration laws. The bench denied passing Rs 24,731 crore FRL-Reliance Retail merger deal.