Delhi HC allows Future Group to go ahead with the deal with Reliance Industries

Rejecting Amazon’s request, the Delhi High Court has stayed the single judge’s order passed on February 2 where it had temporarily stopped the Future Retail Limited’s deal with Reliance Industries. However after the new order, the Future Group can now go ahead with the deal.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said that Future Retail Limited (FRL) was not a party to the arbitration agreement with Amazon.

The Court further said that 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 SEBI and 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.