Delhi High Court Orders Status Quo On Future Retail- Reliance Retail Deal

A single judge bench of Justice JR Midha of the Delhi High Court has directed a status quo on Rs 27,513-crore deal between Future Retail and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.

'This court is satisfied that immediate orders are needed to protect the rights of the petitioner [Amazon.com Inc.] till the pronouncement for the reserved order. In that view of the matter, the respondents [Future Group] are directed to maintain status quo as on today at 4:49 PM till the pronouncement of the reserved order,’ the Delhi High Court said.

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC had approached court after the market regulator SEBI granted conditional approval to Future Group’s scheme of arrangement and sale of its assets to the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. on Jan. 20.

In its petition dated Jan. 25, Amazon had argued that the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group ignored the directions of the Emergency Arbitrator and continuously pursued regulatory authorities requesting them to approve the transaction. Future Group, it has said, has maliciously and deliberately disobeyed the arbitrator’s order.

This is a developing story