Future Retail | Amazon
Reliance-Future deal: SC to list hearing of Amazon's plea to preserve Future Retail Ltd's assets, resume arbitration
New Delhi: A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana Tuesday said that it would list for hearing the interim plea of e-commerce major Amazon seeking preservation of Future Retail Ltd's assets besides resumption of arbitration over the merger deal with Reliance Retail, media reports said.
The bench told senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the US firm, that one of the judges, Justice Hima Kohli, was unavailable and hence the hearing cannot take place on the scheduled date, reported news agency PTI.
The bench comprising N V Ramana, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Kohli have been hearing matters related Amazon's plea challenging Reliance-Future deal.
"We have some difficulties in constituting the bench. My sister (Justice Hima Kohli) has some problems. That is the reason... at least one partner (judge) should be there," the chief justice of India said, according to PTI.
"I think by that time she (Justice Kohli) may come. She had some problems. I will list it as early as possible, subject to the availability of the bench," the CJI said, it added.
He assured that a separate bench would be set up to hear the case otherwise.
Amazon has sought court's intervention over "disappearnce" of Future Retail's assets to preserve them and resumption of arbitration of of arbitration over FRL's merger deal with Reliance Retail.
The court asked the Future group firms, FRL and Future Coupons Ltd (FCPL), to respond to the interim plea of Amazon and fixed the hearing on March 23.
Amazon and Future group are locked in multi-forum litigation on the issue of FRL's merger deal to the tune of Rs 24,500 crore with Reliance Retail Ltd.
On March 3, Amazon alleged that that on March 3, as many as 600 stores of FRL were taken away by Reliance.
The plea was vehemently opposed by the Future group lawyers on Tuesday.
Amazon has sought resumption of hearing of its appeal against the January 5 order of the Delhi High Court, which stayed the arbitration proceedings before the arbitral tribunal over Future Retail's merger deal with Reliance Retail.
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