Future Group on Saturday approached the Delhi high court challenging a single judge’s order upholding the Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator’s (EA) judgment restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business. The US-based e-commerce giant Amazon had challenged the deal in the international court.

The appeal will be heard on March 22 by a bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh.

The appeal, filed through advocate Harshvardhan Jha, has challenged the single judge’s March 18 judgment directing Kishore Biyani-led FRL not to take further action in relation to the deal with Reliance and holding that the group willfully violated the Singapore Arbitrator’s order.

Justice J.R. Midha had rejected all the objections raised by Future Group and imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on the Future Group and its directors and directed them to deposit the amount in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund within two weeks for being used for providing Covid-19 vaccination to senior citizens of Below Poverty Line (BPL) category of Delhi.

The March 18 verdict had come on Amazon’s plea seeking direction to order enforcement of the award by Singapore’s EA on October 25, 2020, restraining FRL from going ahead with its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail.

The high court, which directed the presence of Biyani and others before it on April 28, had also ordered attachment of their properties and asked them to file an affidavit detailing their assets within one month.

It had also asked them to show cause as to why they be not detained under civil prison for a term not exceeding three months for violating the emergency arbitrator’s order and file reply within two weeks.