The Supreme Court, on Friday passed an order in favour of Amazon stating that the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s (SIAC) Emergency Arbitrator’s award against the ₹25,000 crore Reliance Retail-Future group deal, is valid.

In October last year, Amazon was granted an interim stay by SIAC against the Future Retail and Reliance Retail transaction.

Future Retail had questioned the jurisdiction of the Singapore International Arbitration Court (SIAC) to give a ruling in the ongoing dispute with Amazon over the deal with Reliance Retail.

Also read: SC rules in favour of Amazon in the Future Retail case

The Kishore Biyani promoted retail company had said that its deal with Reliance Industries cannot be held back by the arbitration proceedings because it was not a party to any agreement with Amazon.

However, the Supreme Court ruling means that the deal between Future Retail and Reliance Retail will be under a cloud. Under the deal, Reliance had agreed to take over Future Retail’s operations. The deal is important to Future group founder Kishore Biyani as he is struggling under debt.

“The Supreme Court ruling will put Biyani under stress because the banks will not lend any further. Future’s future looks bleak for now,” said an industry expert.

Also read: Future Retail locked in 10% lower circuit post SC ruling in favour of Amazon

On Friday, a bench of Justices Rohinton F Nariman and BR Gavai upheld the validity and enforceability of a Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator (EA) award, which restrained Future Retail Limited from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail, under the Indian laws.

“We welcome the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India upholding the Emergency Arbitrator’s Award. We hope that this will hasten a resolution of this dispute with the Future Group,” said a spokesperson from Amazon.

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