Amazon Inc on Thursday challenged an order of the division bench of the Delhi high court that had stayed an earlier order of the same court directing Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and other statutory authorities to maintain status quo on the Kishore Biyani company’s Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail.

In its special leave petition, expected to come up for hearing on Monday, Amazon has said the division bench order of February 8 was being passed “hastily” and was “unsustainable in law” since it did not even wait for the verdict of an order from the single judge of the same court that was reserved on February 2.

The Delhi high court should not even have entertained the appeal filed by FRL against the single judge’s order, Amazon said.

The US online giant argued the appeal was barred under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Pleading if the division bench order was not set aside by the apex court, it would cause “irreparable loss”, Amazon said the bench had “… failed to appreciate that the single judge order was issued… for the limited purpose of preserving the rights of the parties till the pronouncement of the final orders”.

But without waiting for the pronouncement of the final order, the division bench had “hastily passed” the status quo order, Amazon has contended.

Earlier on February 8, the bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had ruled that statutory

authorities such as the National Company Law Tribunal, CCI and Sebi cannot be

restrained from proceeding with the deal.

On February 2, the single judge bench of Justice J.R. Midha had directed FRL to maintain status quo vis-a-vis Reliance Retail after Amazon Inc challenged the deal between FRL and Reliance Retail.

“This Court is satisfied that immediate orders are necessary to protect the rights of the petitioner (Amazon) till the pronouncement of the reserved order. In view of the matter, the respondents are directed to maintain status quo as on today at 4:50pm till the pronouncement of the reserved order,” the judge had said in the February 2 order while reserving its order on the main petition.

It also directed all other concerned authorities to maintain status quo in relation to the matters which are in violation of the emergency award and to file a report with regard to the present status within 10 days.

Aggrieved, FRL filed the appeal before a division bench which stayed the single judge order. Future Retail on Tuesday had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court demanding the company be heard if Amazon files a case in the apex court.