In a setback to Mukesh Ambani's expansion plans, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favour of Amazon, which had appealed against the merger of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail.
Amazon had approached the Supreme Court citing a Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award in Singapore to restrain the merger, valued at Rs 24,731 crore.
The verdict on the Future Retail-Reliance merger issue had been keenly awaited given the questions related to legality and enforceability of an award by an Emergency Arbitrator (EA) of a foreign country in India.
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The bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and B.R. Gavai ruled that the Emergency Arbitrator award in Singapore was enforceable under Indian law under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The Supreme Court upheld the single-bench order of the Delhi High Court, which had held the EA award to be valid.
Amazon had told the bench that the Biyanis of Future Group had negotiated with it to enter into certain agreements and were bound by the EA award restraining FRL from going ahead with Reliance Retail merger.