American e-commerce giant Amazon on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that its talks with the Future Group for exploring the possibility of an out of court settlement to avoid "whirlpool of litigations" had failed.
It also accused the Future group of allowing Reliance Retail to take over its stores, despite the order against it. The Future group, for its part, denied the accusations, saying it had got no money and had become "broke" as Reliance moved in to take over stores.
However, both the parties agreed before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana that they would like to resume arbitration proceedings before the Singapore tribunal that has been put on hold by the Delhi High Court.
The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, indicated to pass an interim order, since no settlement could be reached between the Future group and Amazon.
“We are keen to pass an interim order on the case. Tell us on which issue we should pass an interim order,” the bench told Amazon counsel senior advocate Gopal Subramanium.
He agreed to file an application for interim relief.
On March 3, the top court gave Amazon and Future Group 12 days to find a solution to the ongoing legal battle through informal talks.
The feud started since October 2020 when the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) through an emergency order put a halt on the proposed deal between Future Group and Reliance Retail.
Notably, on Tuesday, Amazon published a notice in the newspapers and accused Future Retail and RIL of “fraud". It also warned the promoters of FRL not to transfer its assets to RIL as they would be liable for civil and criminal consequences.
It also said the transfer of FRL's assets to RIL violated the binding orders of SIAC and was also against the commitment made before the Supreme Court.
During the arguments, Subramanian, raised the issue of transfer of assets and submitted that unless the top court granted interim protection to it, there would be nothing left to fight over at a later stage.
The Future group led by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohtagi countered the charge, saying they have not transferred the stores.
“Amazon is driving us to our knees. We are broke. Shop takeover started 15 days ago. We have no control. Future Retail has no money to pay for the rent lease and therefore, Reliance moved in to takeover the stores. Reliance is taking action despite the ongoing litigation. We can't do anything,” Salve said.
He further said that the takeover of the stores was not voluntary and the promoters had objected to the action.
“I have been saying that this litigation will drive us to bankruptcy and it has. Future Retail has no money to pay for the rent lease and therefore, Reliance moved in to takeover the stores,” Salve said, adding that Amazon was aware of the takeover even while it proposed to settle the dispute through dialogue on the last date of hearing.
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