E-commerce giant Amazon moves top court on Future-Reliance deal

United States-based e-commerce giant Amazon has approached the Supreme Court against an order of the Delhi High Court staying the status quo order on the ₹24,713 crore deal between Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Limited (FRL) and Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance Retail.

On February 8, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court led by Chief Justice DN Patel had stayed a single judge’s direction of February 2 putting a temporary freeze on the deal between Future Retail and Reliance. The order came on FRL’s appeal seeking stay of the February 2 order where FRL claimed that due to the status quo position, the proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for approving the amalgamation scheme were held up. This could be an “absolute disaster” for the company with its outlets across India being shut and nearly 25,000 employees losing their livelihood.

The February 8 order of the Delhi High Court had noted, “Statutory authorities should not be restrained from proceeding in accordance with law on Future-Reliance deal,” while lifting the single judge’s status quo direction.