Kishore Biyani vs Amazon – Delhi High Court brings up ‘civil prison’ for violation by Future Group, asks for recall of approvals granted to Future Retail-Reliance deal

• The judgement given by Justice JR Midha said that Future Retail, Future Coupons, Kishore Biyani and others violated the Emergency Award.
• The High Court also directed Future Group to approach authorities to recall all approvals granted to the Future Retail-Reliance deal.
• However, Future Group said that the order would have no impact as the matter is in the Supreme Court.

Delhi High Court pronounced its order in the Future Retail-Amazon case today. In a big win today for Amazon, the court upheld the emergency arbitrator’s award in favour of the Jeff Bezos-led company.

The judgement given by Justice JR Midha said that Future Retail, Future Coupons, Kishore Biyani and others violated the Emergency Award, and also questioned ‘why should they not be detained in prison,’ reported legal news platform Bar & Bench.

In another blow to Biyani, the High Court also directed Future Group to approach authorities to recall all approvals granted to Future Retail-Reliance deal.

The High Court in today’s order has also asked Biyani’s Future Group to place on record any action taken by it in connection with the Reliance deal after October 25, 2020.

Because of the violation, the court has also penalised Future Retail for ₹20 lakh and directed the company to deposit the amount in PM Relief Fund.

Additionally, in December 2020, another Delhi High Court order by a single judge had essentially ruled that Amazon cannot use an agreement with one Future group company i.e. Future Coupon to exert control over a deal struck by another company i.e. Future Retail. That would be in violation of India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Not just that, the court had also gone on to say that this “amounts to tortious interference.”

The legal battle between Amazon and Future Group over the latter’s deal with Reliance has been going on for months now.

On October 25, 2020 global e-commerce giant Amazon got a stay order on the Future Retail and Reliance deal from a Singapore arbitrator, and had written to BSE and SEBI to uphold the decision. Amazon had sent a legal notice to Future Coupons over Future Group’s ₹25,000 crore deal with Reliance. Amazon had said that it was denied the Rights of First Refusal for the deal with Future Group.

Future Group has also reportedly moved the Singapore arbitration court to remove Future Retail from the fight with Amazon. Future Group’s appeal to exclude Future Retail comes as Biyani hopes to save his debt-ridden Big Bazaar chain with a sale to Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

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Future Group appeals to the Singapore arbitrator to exclude Future Retail from the fight with Amazon