JOIN USAmazon asks SC to restrain Reliance from opening new stores in place of Big Bazaar
US e-commerce giant Amazon on Wednesday filed a plea in the Supreme Court to restrain Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail from opening any new stores in place of Future Group's Big Bazaar.
It also asked the top court to stop the Future group from alienating or transferring any of its retail assets till the final disposal of its arbitration petition by the Singapore tribunal.
It sought protection in terms of a direction to FRL to maintain the status quo on creating third party rights on its retail assets during the pendency of such proceedings before the Singapore tribunal, scheduled to resume hearing between April 18 to May 13.
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A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli fixed the matter for hearing on March 23, for passing an interim order. The court said the proceedings before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) may resume where Amazon could press for relief in its feud with Future Group.
Amazon led by senior advocate Gopal Subramanium expressed readiness to go back to the arbitral tribunal but only after getting protection from the top court.
The tribunal had already granted protection against alienation of Future group’s assets and “if there has been no adherence of the order passed in 2020 till now, then there is no point to file another application before the tribunal,” he said.
The Future group led by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi also showed their willingness to resume the arbitration process that was stayed by Delhi High Court in January.
The 370-page application by Amazon was filed in the backdrop of Reliance Retail changing the FRL’s brand name Big Bazaar after taking over the hundreds of Big Bazaar stores, citing non-payment of rent.
Over 400 such stores are likely to be rebranded as Reliance Retail stores. Apart from this, even FRL’s employees have started on the payroll of Reliance. Reliance had suddenly taken control of hundreds of Future stores, the plea by Amazon said.
"This was in clear breach of the restraint orders of the arbitral tribunal and were suppressed before the SC, the Delhi High Court and also the statutory authorities and regulators like CCI and Sebi, thus are clearly null and void,” it asserted.
Amazon accused the Future group of committing “fraud,” as it had transferred its stores to Reliance after giving assurance to the SC on September 9, 2021, that its retail assets will continue to vest with it till the final order on sanctioning of the merger scheme comes from the National Company Law Tribunal.
The FRL on March 9 in its filing to stock exchanges admitted for the first time that it was no longer the lessee of its stores and had surrendered around 900 stores (contributing 55% - 65% of the total revenue of FRL) to Reliance, Amazon said,
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