Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Friday said the order passed by a single-judge bench of the Delhi high court would have no impact on the proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with regard to the proposed Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Industries and that its promoters are considering “appropriate remedies” against some of the other directions passed by the bench.

On Thursday, the Delhi high court had upheld an order by the Emergency Arbitrator (EA) of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) restraining FRL from proceeding with the transaction.

The development led to Future group stocks crashing around 10 per cent. While Future Enterprises settled 9.21 per cent lower at Rs 8.67, Future Consumer fell 9.96 per cent to Rs 6.42. The share price of Future Retail slid 9.99 per cent to Rs 55.85 and Future Lifestyle Fashions also fell by 9.9 per cent to Rs 64.85 on the BSE.

“We are advised that this order does not come in the way of the continuance of the ongoing NCLT proceedings, being inconsistent with the order dated February 22, 2021, of the Supreme Court,” Future Retail said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges on Friday.

“Amazon has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the order passed by the division bench. The Supreme Court, in its order on Amazon’s appeal, has not vacated the stay granted by the division bench (which stay is still in operation). The Supreme Court has directed that, in the meantime, the NCLT proceedings will be allowed to go on but will not culminate in any final order of sanction of scheme,” Future Retail added.

In its order, Justice J R Midha directed FRL not to take further action on the deal with Reliance and held that the group wilfully violated the EA's order.

The high court rejected all the objections raised by Future Group and imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it as well as its directors. It directed them to deposit the amount in 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. Future group founder Kishore Biyani and directors were also ordered to be present before the Delhi High Court at the next hearing even as the High Court asked them to show cause as to why they should not be detained for three months in a civil prison for violating the emergency arbitrator's order.

Here, FRL said that with respect to other directions passed by the single judge, the promoters will take appropriate remedies as advised.

It may be recalled that Amazon had filed a plea seeking direction to order enforcement of the award by Singapore's EA on October 25, 2020 which restrained FRL from proceeding with the deal with Reliance Retail.