The Future Group on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court against the Singapore arbitral tribunal’s order that dismissed its plea for termination of the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon against the Rs 24,500-crore merger deal between Future Retail (FRL) and Reliance Retail. The termination of arbitration proceedings was sought on the ground that the Competition Commission of India had in December suspended the 2019 deal between Amazon and Future Coupons (FCPL).

While the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) on June 28 had dismissed the applications filed by FCPL and FRL, it had reserved the cost of these termination applications, as sought by Amazon, for determination at the final stages of the proceedings.

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Future Group in its two petitions told the Delhi High Court that the dismissal of its termination pleas was “palpably erroneous and illegal” and requires immediate intervention by the HC. “The impugned order reflects a stark abdication of jurisdiction by the arbitral tribunal, which despite the SC order of April 6 to “pass orders” on the termination applications has done precisely the opposite, by relegating all issues to a ‘final hearing’, FCPL said in one of its appeals.

It further argued that the tribunal had proceeded to “simply regurgitate its prima facie view” and without applying itself to how the CCI order was in the nature of a clear legal barrier to the continuation of proceedings relegated all matters to consideration in a final hearing, thus acted in a “pre-determined manner”.

According to Future Group, the tribunal’s order had failed to appreciate that the arbitration proceeding was instituted to construe rights, which as of date, in the absence of approval of the CCI, simply do not exist.

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Justice Hari Shankar after a brief hearing posted the matter for hearing on November 28. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will hear on January 10 Amazon’s appeal against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) order which upheld the anti-trust regulator’s suspension of the e-commerce firm’s deal with the Future Group firm. Amazon had acquired a 49% stake in FCPL in 2019 which was approved by CCI but later on a complaint that it did not disclose all the information, CCI in December 2021 put the approval in abeyance.