Supreme Court reserves verdict on Future Group

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved verdict on a batch of pleas filed by Future group firms against a Delhi High Court order declining stay on an arbitration tribunal decision refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

"We reserve the order. All the four SLPs (special leave petitions) are over. A lot of homework for us. Anyway I will not write lengthy judgement," a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said. Initially, the bench, also comprising justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, suggested to the counsels for Amazon and the Future group firms that the single judge bench of the Delhi High Court be allowed to hear the statutory appeals of the Future group against the final arbitral award of the SIAC.

The bench said that the pleas, which are arising from the EA's award and are pending before it, may not be "relevant now as the final award of the SIAC has already been passed". "Your (Future group) first SLP which has challenged Justice J R Midha (Delhi HC) order, we had said that no implementation of that order. We never said Delhi High Court to not hear the matter for what has come up subsequently," the bench observed at the outset.

The apex court has been hearing pleas including the fresh petition of Future Group against the Delhi High Court's recent order declining its plea for stay on an arbitration tribunal decision refusing to interfere with the SIAC's EA, which restrained it from going ahead with the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail. The SIAC, in the EA, had granted relief to US e-commerce major Amazon by restraining the Future from going ahead with the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail.