The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from the Future Group companies as to why arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon against it before a Singapore tribunal should not resume, as sought by the e-commerce firm.

The Delhi high court had last month stayed the arbitration proceedings against Future Retail’s Rs 24,500 crore proposed merger deal with Reliance Retail. The tribunal had rescheduled its hearing in the arbitration case for May after the HC on January 5 had stayed its proceedings citing a Competition Commission of India order that had suspended its clearance given to Amazon’s Rs 1,400 crore investment in Future Coupons in 2019.

A bench led by Chief Justice N V Ramana issued notice to Future Group companies – Future Retail (FRL) and Future Coupons (FCPL) – among other parties and listed the matter for further hearing on February 23.

Amazon, in its appeal, said that the division bench of the HC had stayed the arbitration proceedings even though the hearing slated for January 5 to 8 had already commenced and that the expert witnesses had also started making their opening statements.

“Notably, substantial parts of the evidence and final arguments on questions on liability have already been completed in virtual hearings from November 1 to 5… The second tranche of the evidentiary hearing was for the purposes of considering expert evidence on damages/compensation claimed…,” it stated.

While staying the arbitration proceedings, the division bench of the HC led by Chief Justice D N Patel had said that there is a ‘prima facie case’ in favour of the Future Group companies in view of the CCI’s order and if the proceedings are not halted, this would cause an ‘irreparable loss’ to the Biyani Group.

The spat between Future Group and Amazon has been on since October 25, 2020 when the Singapore’s EA passed an interim order restraining FRL from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail. The two sides have been embroiled in a legal battle over Future Retail’s move to sell its retail assets to Reliance Retail for Rs 24,500 crore. Amazon, which had acquired an indirect minority stake in Future Group in 2019 for Rs 1,400 crore, has alleged that Future’s sale of its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail breached its pre-existing contract, which included a right of the first offer and a non-compete clause.