The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld an order by the emergency arbitrator (EA) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from proceeding with its Rs 24,713cr deal with Reliance Retail.

Justice J.R. Midha on Thursday held that the Future group wilfully violated the Singapore arbitrator’s order and directed FRL not to take further action on the deal.

The court directed the Future group and its directors to deposit Rs 20 lakh in Prime Minister's Relief Fund for providing Covid-19 vaccines to senior citizens in the BPL category.

The court also directed the presence of Biyani and others before it on April 28 as also the attachment of their properties. A show cause notice was issued to Biyani and the others as to why they will not be detained in civil prison for three month for violating the emergency arbitrator's order.

Officials from the Future group did not offer an immediate reaction to the development, saying they will only be able to comment after receiving a copy of the order.

US retail giant Amazon which has been objecting to the deal between the Future group and Reliance had approached the high court seeking direction to order the enforcement of the award of the Singapore arbitrator.

Amazon had also sought to restrain the Future group from taking any steps to complete the transaction with entities that are part of the Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (MDA) Group.

In February, the high court had reserved its order on the main petition and directed all other concerned authorities to maintain status quo in relation to the matter which are in violation of the emergency award and to file a report with regard to the present status within 10 days.

While pronouncing the interim order, Justice Midha had upheld the role of the Singapore arbitrator. The arbitrator was right in proceeding against Future Retail and its order was not in nullity.

Justice Midha said it was clear the October 25, 2020 order of the Singapore arbitrator was enforceable and appealable under the relevant provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

This interim order was appealed by the Future group and subsequently, a division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had stayed the direction to FRL and various statutory authorities to maintain status quo on the deal. Following this, Amazon had moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court.

Lawyers said the interim direction of the single judge is a binding order. The order likely to be challenged immediately for a stay.