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The Supreme Court Bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Hrishikesh Roy stayed the Delhi High Court orders passed by Division Bench of Justice DN Patel & Justice Jasmeet Singh on March 22, 2021 & Single Judge Bench of Justice JR Midha on March 18, 2021.

“We will stay further proceedings before the Single Judge & Division Bench. Meanwhile pleadings will be completed & matter will come up with other matters on 4th May. All counter affidavit & rejoinders to be filed within one week.”, the Bench remarked.

The hearing saw the appearance of Sr Adv Harish Salve appearing for Future Retail & Sr Adv G Gopal Subramaniam for Amazon. 

In the present matter, the Bench was hearing an appeal against the order dated March 22,2021 vide which the Division Bench of Hon’ble Chief Justice DN Patel & Justice Jasmeet Singh stayed the order of the learned Single Judge dated 18.03.2021 in OMP (ENF) (COMM) 17/2021 till the next date of hearing which in the present matter is April 30, 2021.

On March 18, the Single Judge Bench of Justice JR Midha, Delhi High Court imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on Future group, to be deposited with the Prime Minister's Relief Fund for providing COVID vaccination to the Below Poverty Line category - senior citizens of Delhi.

Justice JR Midha while imposing the cost said that although the Future Retail, Kishore Biyani and others took Rs.1431 crore from Amazon, solely on the basis of the rights provided by FRL to FCPL that they would not transfer their retail assets without the prior consent of Amazon and never to a Restrict Person & since the agreement was breached, the parties intentions were dishonest & there was no remorse other than imposing a heavy cost. 

The court vide order dated March 18, had also said that the case fell under the consequences enumerated in Order XXXIX Rule 2A of CPC as Future Retail, Kishore Biyani and other parties deliberately and willfully violated the interim order passed dated October 25, 2020 & accordingly issued a show cause notice asking the violators as to why they should not be detained in civil prison for a term not exceeding three months.

Further, directing the attachment of assets of Kishore Biyani, Future Retail, Future Coupons and other parties, the Single Bench of Justice JR Midha ordered the filing of an affidavit detailing their assets. It further held that the Emergency Arbitrator had rightly invoked the 'Group of Company' doctrine in relation to the Future Group companies. The Future Group was also barred from taking further action in furtherance of the deal with Reliance.

The matter will now be heard on May 4, 2021.

Case Title: Amazon.Com NV Investment Holdings LLC v. Future Retail & Ors|SLP(C) No. 6113-6114/2021