Amazon-Future Row: Delhi HC Scraps Future Plea To Terminate Arbitration Before SIAC

The single-judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar hasn’t expressed any opinion on the merits of the arguments raised by the parties and said that the arbitration before SIAC will continue

Future Group’s plea to terminate the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) was dismissed on Tuesday by the Delhi High Court, according to a report by Bar And Beach. The single-judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar hasn’t expressed any opinion on the merits of the arguments raised by the parties and said that the arbitration before SIAC will continue.

Future argued before the Delhi HC that there was a "stark abdication of jurisdiction" by the Arbitral Tribunal. The Tribunal postponed all issues to a final hearing despite the order of the Supreme Court to "pass orders" on the termination applications, reported LiveLaw.

Future Group’s plea said, “This approach has in essence rendered the hearings on the termination applications an exercise in redundancy for it is the same arguments and pleading which will be regurgitated in the final hearing, putting the Petitioners to considerable prejudice in terms of cost as also time.”

Last week, Supreme Court has observed that Future Group was trying to stall international arbitration in the Amazon-Future Group dispute. The Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud told Future Group, “You cannot keep stultifying the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal and this is just a ploy to delay the proceedings…All ploys by well-heeled parties to delay the arbitration...Your client is trying to be too clever by half... As a Chief Justice of this court I am concerned.”

The case dates back to 2019 when Amazon acquired 49 per cent stakes in Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL), a promoter of Future Retail. Later, Future Group proposed to sell its retail, wholesale & logistics assets to Reliance for Rs 24,713 crore. When the proposal was made public, Amazon opposed the deal on the ground that it had invested Rs 1,400 crore in Future Coupons which “does not allow Future to sell retail assets to certain companies, including Reliance.” Amazon took the matter before Singapore International Arbitration Centre. 

The Future Group had earlier approached SAIC with a plea to terminate the arbitration proceedings. On June 28, the plea was rejected. Subsequently, they moved to the Delhi HC against the SIAC order. On November 28, SAIC is going for the final hearing on the matter.