Amazon-Future: Delhi High Court to hear Future Group appeal today against single-judge order dismissing plea to hear termination petition

The Delhi High Court will hear today at 2.15 pm Future Group's appeal seeking a direction to a Singapore tribunal to deal with its termination applications in relation to its 2019 deal with Amazon [Future Retail Limited v Amazon.com NV Investment Holding LLC and Ors]..The appeal is against a judgment passed by single-judge of the High Court on Tuesday dismissing the plea. Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Future, mentioned the matter before Chief Justice (CJ) DN Patel today morning seeking urgent listing of the matter."Tribunal has not accommodated us even for a day. It’s a do or die situation for us," Krishnan said. "At 2:15," the CJ said. .An arbitration tribunal in Singapore has been hearing Amazon's case against Future Group related to the 2019 deal between the two companies. While hearing this case, the tribunal had passed an interim order stalling the sale of Future Retail's assets to Reliance Industries.Future Retail had petitioned the Tribunal arguing that continuing proceedings there would be illegal in view of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ruling against Amazon.The CCI had suspended the clearance for the deal, stating that Amazon had failed to notify it about certain crucial details of its acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in Future, as required under Section 6(2) of the Competition Act, 2002 (Act). It had, therefore, also imposed of a penalty of ₹202 crore on Amazon.The tribunal refused to consider the request before starting a final hearing, prompting the Future Group to move the Delhi High Court..However, Single-judge Justice Amit Bansal dismissed the plea holding that there is no evidence to suggest that the tribunal denied equal opportunity to Future Group or that it has not been accommodating towards their requests.“No exceptional circumstances or perversity have been demonstrated/made out in the petitions or during the hearing to warrant the exercise of jurisdiction by this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India,” Justice Bansal ruled.The Court also did not find any merit in the submission by the Future Group that hearing of termination application should take precedence before the tribunal continues with hearing of the expert witnesses.It said that it is the sole discretion of the tribunal to decide whether the applications should be heard before or after the hearing of experts.