Out-of-court talks between Amazon and Future Group have not resolved the dispute. Now its decision will be taken in the Supreme Court itself. The proposed sale of $3.4 billion of retail assets to Reliance Industries aimed at resolving the long-running legal battle between the two companies has failed. Lawyers for Amazon and Future Group informed the Supreme Court about this on Tuesday.
Negotiations between Amazon-Future Group fail, the matter related to Reliance Retail’s deal
Senior counsel representing both the companies, appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, submitted that the deliberations took place on Saturday at their counsel’s level, but failed to bring any positive development.
No possibility of agreement between the companies
Justices AS Bopanna and Hema Kohli are also included in this bench. The Bench was told by the lawyers that there is no possibility of settlement between the companies and hence they are willing to resume the arbitration proceedings before the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). , To this, the bench agreed to consider sending Amazon and Future back to the SIAC, where proceedings have been delayed due to a stay on arbitration proceedings issued by a division bench of the Delhi High Court on January 5.
However, senior advocates Gopal Subramaniam and Espy Chinoy, appearing for Amazon, urged the court to issue an interim order against the acquisition of Future Retail (FRL) stores by Reliance Group during the pendency of the proceedings before SIAC. Let us tell you that Reliance is not a party to the proceedings before the apex court.
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Subramaniam complained that most of Future’s retail stores have been taken over by Reliance on March 6 and that there is nothing left for Amazon at the end of the arbitration proceedings if there is no restraining order in the matter.
“Reliance Has Been The New Landlord Of The Stores”
The lawyer said, “I do not want to send a message that the orders of this court can be taken so lightly. Names are not important. They should not bother when the glory of this court is at stake. The stores have been taken over during the pendency of the discussion. They have (in future) broken the lease with the old landlords and Reliance has become the new landlord of these stores. ,
The bench then asked Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for FRL, whether Future’s attempt was to nullify the pending legal proceedings. “How can your client sell the store etc and sterilize the case? What we are realizing is that while these proceedings are going on, everything else is being done out of court?,”
Salve’s reply: Future did not transfer any stores
Salve replied that Future had not transferred any stores, but Reliance, which had lent a large sum of money to Future, has taken over the supermarket. At this point, the bench asked Subramaniam what kind of interim direction it would like to give if the court wants to pressurize Amazon to refer the matter to SIAC for final decision. Subramaniam replied that there are still 300 retail stores left in Future and they should not be taken over by RIL till the arbitration proceedings are over.”