On Monday, the Delhi High Court stayed the single judge’s order passed on February 2. As per that order, the Future Retail Limited’s deal with Reliance Industries was temporarily halted. However, with the new order, the Future Group can now go ahead with the deal, stated .
A division bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said Future Retail Limited (FRL) was not a party to the arbitration agreement with Amazon, stated the news report.
The court further added prima facie, Amazon had no reason to seek a status quo order from the single judge when it was not interested in the deal.
The division bench also pointed out that when the deal is as per the law the authorities like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Competition Commission of India (CCI) could not be restrained from proceeding.
The Reliance-Future Group deal has received approval from the statutory authorities like SEBI and CCI. The deal only requires approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which was effectively stalled by the single judge’s February 2 order. The Future Retail deal with Reliance Retail is worth Rs 24,713 crore.
The bench also said the “group of companies” doctrine could not be invoked in the present case as the three agreements — Future Retail Shareholding Agreement, Future Coupons Pvt Ltd SHA and FCPL Share Subscription Agreement — were distinct in nature.