Future v Amazon: "35,000 Jobs Will Be Saved, Banks Will Be Paid, No Shops Will Be Closed If Reliance Deal Goes Through" Future Group Lawyers To Supreme Court

In the Amazon-Future case, the Future Group on Thursday submitted before the Supreme Court that if Future Retail Ltd's deal with the Reliance goes through, 35000 jobs will be saved, no shops will be closed, Banks will be paid out as well, and FRL's debt will be paid to the last rupee.Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for Future Retail was arguing in favour of NCLT proceedings with regard to Future- Reliance deal being permitted to continue.A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli orally asked Senior Advocate Harish Salve to file his submissions on this aspect through an affidavit.During the hearing, Mr Salve submitted that FRL should be allowed to go ahead with the steps of the scheme as several meetings will have to be held. He added that the Court may hold in the interim that no final order will be made to sanction the merger scheme and no transfer of assets will happen, so Amazon would be protected.After Revocation Of Amazon's approval by CCI, No Enforceable Agreement In Place & Hence No Enforceable Injunction: Future Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Future Coupons Private Ltd argued that the Competition Commission of India has withdrawn the "blessings" given to the agreement between FCPL and Amazon, which contained the arbitration clause.Mr Rohatgi was referring to CCI's order revoking the approval granted to Amazon holding that Amazon's conduct was fraudulent and imposing a fine of 200 crores.He submitted that there is no enforceable agreement in India as far as CCI's order operates, and if there's no agreement enforceable in India, the arbitration clause also perishes. Therefore there is no enforceable arbitration injunction as there's no contract recognised in India today.According to Mr Rohatgi, as there's no operative injunction allowing Future to go further few more steps is of no loss to anyone."Amazon as of today has no legs to stand on, the arbitration agreement is in main agreement and main agreement is today non est in view of CCI's order. There's no impediment in Supreme Court allowing us to go a few steps ahead." Mr Rohatgi said.Direction To Delhi High Court To Dispose Appeals Remanded By Supreme Court: FRLSenior Advocate Harish Salve urged the Court to request the Delhi High Court to hear and dispose of the appeals that were remanded back by the Top Court on 1st Feb.The appeals remanded back to High Court were filed challenging High Court's orders directing coercive steps against Future group and the order refusing to stay the Singapore Arbitration Tribunal's refusal to vacate the Emergency Award which restrained Future's deal with Reliance."Today one of the points in my appeal is if there is at all an arbitration agreement. If High Court holds there's no arbitration agreement there's an end to all my problems and my scheme goes through." Salve saidMr Salve submitted that their appeal is against a Tribunal's award, and the primary question is if there is an arbitration agreement at all. According to him, if these issues are decided by the High Court a lot of other issues will fall into place.He added if the High Court dismisses the appeals, they will know that the order of injunction passed by the Emergency Arbitrator (and upheld by Tribunal) is going to be in place, and then bankruptcy may be the only way out. However if appeals are allowed and injunction gets thrown away, then their Reliance scheme would go through and all the issues will get sorted.He suggested that in the meanwhile, FRL can talk to the banks and see if they can reach some arrangement.Injunction Order Subsists Till Date: AmazonSenior Advocate Gopal Subramanium appearing for Amazon submitted that the injunction order passed by the Emergency Arbitrator on 25 October 2020 has not been varied or reversed in appeal and hence the same is in force as of today.FRL's Objection To Jurisdiction Of Tribunal Already Dismissed: AmazonWith regard to FRL's objection to Tribunal's jurisdiction, Mr Subramanium submitted that the same was a jurisdictional objection and has been dismissed under section 16 of the Arbitration Act by the Tribunal on 20th October 2021.He argued that if that being a partial order, it can be challenged in final award only, and not before the Delhi High Court in an appeal filed under Section 37 as proposed by Mr Salve."It can be challenged only in a final award, I have never heard something as preposterous as this, that a partial order by an Arbitral Tribunal rejecting Mr Salve's submissions, it can be only challenged in final award. Mr Salve says he will argue it in the Section 37 appeal? In fact if I may say so, when your Lordships remanded the matter, everything is been remanded, everything being taken to Single Judge and the Single judge has to examine matter de novo", he said.(The order being referred to here by Mr Subramanium was a Partial Award on Jurisdiction passed by Singapore Arbitration Tribunal on 20th October 2021, dismissing...

Future v Amazon: "35,000 Jobs Will Be Saved, Banks Will Be Paid, No Shops Will Be Closed If Reliance Deal Goes Through" Future Group Lawyers To Supreme Court

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