Big win for Amazon after top court halts Future-ril deal

In a major victory for e-commerce giant Amazon, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Future Group is bound by an emergency award that has restrained it from a $3.4 billion sale of retail assets to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

A bench of justices Rohinton F Nariman and BR Gavai held that the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award, passed in October 2020, was enforceable under the Indian arbitration law and will bind Kishore Biyani-led group of companies being a party to pertinent agreements with Amazon.

“A party cannot be heard to say, after it participates in an Emergency Award proceeding, having agreed to institutional rules made in that regard, that thereafter it will not be bound by an Emergency Arbitrator’s ruling,” said the bench while allowing the petitions filed by Amazon which is engaged in a legal wrangle with RIL for domination of the Indian retail market.

In its 103-page judgment, the top court noted that “it cannot lie in the mouth of a party to ignore an Emergency Arbitrator’s award by stating that it is a nullity when such party (Future Group) expressly agrees to the binding nature of such award from the date it is made and further undertakes to carry out the said interim order immediately and without delay.”

A spokesman for Amazon said “we hope this will hasten a resolution to the dispute.” A spokesperson for Reliance didn’t immediately comment on the ruling.

Future Retail said in an exchange filing Friday it will pursue all available avenues and legal remedies to conclude the deal and protect investors and workers.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have pulled back their forward deployed troops from Gogra, or Patrol Point-17a, which was one of the friction points on the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) where forces from both sides were “in a face-off situation” since May last year.

The breakthrough came after the 12th round of military talks held in the Ladakh sector last week, the Indian Army announced on Friday, and the disengagement process was carried out on August 4, 5. The development came almost six months after the two armies pulled back their front-line troops and weaponry from the Pangong Tso sector in mid-february after the ninth round of talks.

“As per the agreement (reached during the 12th round of talks on July 31), both sides have ceased forward deployments in this area (PP-17A) in a phased, coordinated and verified manner. The troops of both sides are now in their respective permanent bases,” the army said in a statement.

As part of the disengagement process, both armies have dismantled temporary structures erected by them along with allied infrastructure, with the actions being mutually verified. “The landform in the area has been restored by both sides to the pre-standoff period (April 2020),” it said.

India and China have b locked in a border row fo months, a phase that witne a deadly skirmish in the Gal Valley and saw tensions sp between the rival armies on north and south banks of P ong Tso last year. The armies kicked off talks to border tensions in June 20