The Supreme Court today asked a consortium of banks to file an affidavit after Kishore Biyani-led Future Group Ltd ((FRL) sought the quashing of their warnings against the company for starting insolvency proceedings against it.
During a hearing today, the bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli asked the lenders to file an affidavit. The court also posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.
FRL had cited its ongoing dispute with US-based e-commerce giant Amazon.com, which stalled its ₹24,713 crore retail asset sale deal with Reliance Retail. It had requested the SC to direct lenders to not declare the company a non-performing asset (NPA).
The Supreme Court also set aside orders by the Delhi high court, which had declined a stay on an arbitration tribunal decision refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). The apex court asked the Delhi high court “to consider issues and pass an order on its own merits uninfluenced by observations.”
The SIAC had granted relief to US e-commerce major Amazon by restraining Kishore Biyani’s Future Group from going ahead with the merger deal of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail. Amazon had dragged Future Group to arbitration at SIAC in October last year, arguing that FRL had violated their contract by entering into the deal with rival Reliance Retail.
