The Supreme Court of India (SC), on February 22, allowed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to continue its proceedings in the Amazon versus Future Group case but restrained it from passing any final order.
The SC has issued a notice to Future Retail (FRL) on Amazon’s plea seeking status quo. Earlier this month, Amazon had moved the SC, challenging the lifting of ‘status quo’ orders on the FRL–Reliance Retail stake sale deal of nearly Rs 25,000 crore by the division bench of the Delhi HC.
The SC had initially proposed to issue notice and stay the NCLT proceedings, to which FRL’s legal representative, senior advocate Harish Salve, informed the court that the Delhi HC hearing is due on February 26. He further said that FRL’s meeting is “a first-step meeting where everyone else has appeared. That is six weeks away. Staying NCLT proceedings will only stay meeting for six weeks. Reliance is calling its own meeting, FRL is coordinating shareholder meetings separately. Nothing will happen as shareholder meeting will take six weeks,” Salve added.
The SC’s final order stated: “We issue notice to come up after three weeks after the rejoinder is filed within two weeks. Meanwhile, NCLT proceedings allowed to go on but not to culminate into any final order of sanction of schemes.” The bench further clarified that this order “has not been made in terms of the status quo order by the High Court’s Single Judge Bench.”
Meanwhile, the Delhi HC, on February 22, adjourned its hearing in Amazon’s appeal against the single-judge bench order on Reliance-Future Retail stake sale deal to March 18.

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