Future Retail moves Delhi High Court to challenge single judge’s order

The Future Retail has moved the Delhi High Court against a March 18 order, which sought the detention of Future Group founder Kishore Biyani, along with the attachment of all of his assets.

The March 18 verdict had come on Amazon’s plea seeking direction to order enforcement of the award by Singapore’s EA on October 25, 2020. The order restrained the Group from taking any step towards its proposed Rs 24,713 crore asset sale deal with Reliance Industries Ltd.

The single judge, which has listed the matter for April 28 for reporting compliance of its order, had held that the EA is an arbitrator for all intents and purposes and he had rightly invoked the Group of Companies doctrine in relation to the Future Group companies. It had said the respondents have raised a vague plea of nullity without substantiating the same and it was done to mislead this Court. As such, it had also directed the Future Group to approach authorities for recalling the approvals granted for the FRL-Reliance deal, and also asked them not to violate the EA’s October 25 last year order. It had asked the Group to place on record the details of action taken by it in connection with the Reliance deal after the October 25 2020 order.

Future Group, in an exchange filing on Saturday, said it has challenged the ruling by a single bench of the Delhi High Court. The case is likely to be heard on Monday, and if the upcoming judgement goes against it, the Group may approach the Supreme Court.

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Justice JR Midha had rejected all the objections raised by the Future Group and imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on the company and its directors, and ordered them to deposit the amount in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund within two weeks for being used for providing COVID-19 vaccination to senior citizens of Below Poverty Line (BPL) category of Delhi.