SC reserves verdict in Amazon vs Future group case
"So the case is closed now. We reserve the judgement," a bench of justices B R Gavai and R F Nariman said after senior advocates Gopal Subramanium and Harish Salve and, appearing for amazon and FRL respectively, concluded their submissions.
Salve, on behalf of FRL, referred to judgements on enforceability and the validity of arbitral awards and said under the indian law on arbitration, there was no notion of EA and conciliation and thus there was no arbitration agreement to this effect. Salve said this while referring to the delhi High court single-judge order which held the EA award to be valid.
On the other hand, amazon told the court that the Future Group has negotiated with it to enter into certain agreements. The US giant also said the FRL is bound by Singapore's EA award which restrains FRL from going ahead with the merger deal with reliance Retail. amazon contended that the EA award was enforceable.
Amazon had approached the top court of india against the division bench order of delhi High court which paved way for the Reliance-FRL deal. The delhi High court division bench, on february 8 had stayed the stayed the single-judge order who ruled in favour of amazon saying that the EA's award was enforceable and valid.