Supreme Court: Amazon, Future Retail approve to appear before Singapore Arbitration Tribunal

Supreme Court: Amazon, Future Retail approve to appear before Singapore Arbitration Tribunal

Both Amazon and Future Retail Ltd have agreed to appear before the Singapore Arbitration Tribunal, according to a statement they made to the Supreme Court on Monday. Both the companies want the arbitration proceedings to be expedited as soon as possible.

FRL had brought a challenge to stay the arbitration proceedings and Amazon sought leave to challenge that in a special leave petition filed earlier this year. For FRL, this arbitration agreement does not apply since Amazon's contract was with Future Coupons Private Ltd (FCPL).

This bench led by the Chief Justice of India ordered that the proceedings in pending adjudication before it be expedited on the issues agreed upon between both parties. It states that both parties intend to appear before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.

In order to address this issue, the bench directed both parties to file a joint memorandum on April 6th.

In a previous ruling, the bench led by the Chief Justice of India urged both parties to contact each other in an effort to reach an agreement regarding FRL's deal with Reliance Group. These talks failed. As a result, Amazon filed an application seeking to restrain Future group, claiming that Reliance was transferring stores to Future in violation of the arbitration tribunal's injunction orders. As for the Future Group, it claimed the leases were terminated due to cash-strapped, forcing the landlords to transfer the properties to the Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (MDA) Group. According to Amazon, Future Group and Reliance colluded to accomplish their goals. After submitting a series of allegations and counter-allegations, the parties have decided to take the issue to the Singapore Tribunal for resolution as soon as possible.

He asked Amazon to proceed with the injunction application before the Delhi High Court instead of passing orders. The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Krishan Murari and Hima Kohli, did not pass any orders today on Amazon's injunction application.

The bench also expressed displeasure over the massive amount of documentation filed by the parties during the hearing.

The Chief Justice said: "Do not try to use these proceedings to solve all your problems. You just keep filing and dumping papers on top of each other."

The Bench made the observation after hearing submissions from Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for Future Retail Ltd that Amazon had filed a new memo adding new averments and seeking new relief.

"You are going beyond the issue by raising this minor point. You file 30 pages. He files 30 pages. What's the significance of this litigation? This was on a small injunction issue. You just keep filing and dumping papers on papers.". Chief Justice Ramana told counsel for both sides.

Amazon's senior lawyer, Gopal Subramanium, appeared for the company.

A recent report informed the Court that the resumption of arbitration is common ground for both parties and both were interested in resuming the arbitration proceedings. The Bench had then directed both parties to file a memo with the Tribunal stating that they are willing to proceed with the arbitration, so it can be recorded and the court can take appropriate action regarding the special leave petition. The Bench mandated today that a joint memo be filed by both sides after they submitted individual memos.

Background:

Amazon appealed to the Apex Court against the Delhi High Court order that stayed future arbitration proceedings against Future Group before the Singapore Tribunal.

Further, the Division Bench also stayed the order whereby the Single Judge had refused to hear Future's plea challenging the two orders of the Singapore Arbitration Tribunal which had been passed deferring the hearing in the lawsuit filed by Future to terminate the arbitration proceedings instituted by Amazon.

Furthermore, the High Court issued notice to Future Retail Ltd and Future Coupons Pvt Ltd regarding their appeals impugning the said Single Judge order with the remand date on February 1, 2022.

Future Group relied on an order passed by the Competition Commission of India on December 17, 2021, to bring its case before the High Court. This order took Amazon's approval of its deal with Future Group off the table.

During its testimony before the Supreme Court, Amazon raised the objection that the interim order enjoining an ongoing international commercial arbitration proceeding seated in New Delhi under SIAC rules presided over by a distinguished Arbitral Tribunal and encompassing parties and experts from around the globe violates the provisions, intent and purpose of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, which emphasizes party autonomy and minimal judicial involvement.

Single Judge's Observations

The Court considered that the Arbitral Tribunal's scheduling of hearing the termination application after hearing the expert witnesses in no way implied that it was not willing to consider the merits of the said applications or discounted their merits.

Further, the Court observed that prima facie nothing in the record suggests that the Arbitral Tribunal has denied equal opportunities to the parties, or that it has not accommodated the Future Group in its requests.