The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought the response of Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Amazon’s plea challenging the prima facie observations by a single judge that the US e-commerce giant’s attempt to control the Indian entity was violative of Fema and FDI rules.

A bench of Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to FRL, Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), Reliance Retail and the Biyanis seeking their stand on the plea by Amazon against the observations made by the single judge in a December 21, 2020 interim order.

Amazon has sought setting aside of the observations as they have a bearing on its case in arbitration proceedings that were initiated before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

The US firm, represented by senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, has contended that the observations are inconsistent with the findings in the SIAC emergency arbitral order of October 25, 2020 against FRL’s asset sale with Reliance Retail.

“The respondent 1 (FRL) has been relying on these prima facie observations to misconstrue the true import of the impugned order in an effort to mislead regulators to grant approval to the potential transaction, which has constrained the appellant to file the present appeal to quash the prime facie observations as set out in detail in the appeal,” Amazon has said.

It has also contended in its appeal that the observations in the December 21, 2020 order “effectively resulted in allowing FRL to collaterally bypass the EA order”.