Bhuvana Iyer – Mumbai Uncensored, 15th February 2022
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted liberty to Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to move the Delhi High Court for seeking nod to proceed with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) permission of going ahead with the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail.
“We grant liberty to FRL to approach the Delhi High Court for seeking continuation of proceedings before the NCLT…We request the single judge (of the high court) to pass orders”, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, said that the high court should consider the plea of FRL on the issue without being influenced by the observations made in its order.
The apex court on February 3 had reserved its order on the plea of FRL seeking continuation of the merger deal process before the NCLT.
Prior to this, in February 2021, SC had prevented the NCLT from taking a final call on the deal between Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd and Reliance Retail, even as it allowed the tribunal to go ahead with the proceedings for merger of Future group and Reliance group firms.
On Tuesday, the Future Group told the Court that the NCLT approval requires multiple steps, which will take a few months and therefore it should allow the process to continue.
The apex court’s decision to overturn the HC’s 8 February ruling that lifted a freeze on the deal and allowing the NCLT to grant its approval based on merits was a positive for Amazon, which is keen to scuttle the deal.
Amazon had secured an interim stay on the deal from a Singapore arbitration tribunal in October, over alleged violation of a partnership contract by Future Group when it agreed to sell the assets to Reliance.
Amazon and the Future group have been engaged in a legal battle for over a year as the US major is opposing the merger of FRL with Reliance Retail.
