Amazon asks Delhi HC to declare SIAC’s emergency arbitrator award akin to judicial order

NEW DELHI : US e-commerce giant Amazon on Friday urged the Delhi High Court to declare that the Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) putting on hold ₹24,713 crore deal between Future Retail Ltd’s (FRL) and Reliance Retail was akin to an order of court and enforceable like any other judicial direction.

The submission was made by Amazon before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh during the hearing of FRL’s plea challenging a single judge interim direction to maintain status quo regarding the deal.

Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for Amazon, said that when Parliament enacted the Arbitration and Conciliation Act it equated arbitral awards with that of orders of court.