SC rejects Amazon's request to file fresh written submission

Move comes five days after apex court reserved its order on Future Group's plea to go ahead with NCLT proceedings for proposed deal between Future Group and Reliance Industries

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday rejected Amazon's request to file a fresh seven-page written submission, five days after the apex court reserved its order on Future Group’s plea to go ahead with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) proceedings for the proposed deal between Future Group and Reliance Industries.

On Amazon's request, Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana said, “Where is this going to end? It is better not to hear these luxury litigations.” He also said that we do not agree with this practice.

Future Group’s counsel K V Vishwanantan said that this is an unfair practice and has opposed Amazon’s request. He also said that Amazon should have requested to file for a written submission the day SC reserved its verdict.

In January, Future Group approached SC for approval to proceed with its deal with Reliance Industries. Future Group had stated that it requires necessary approvals from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the NCLT for its deal with Reliance Industries to move ahead.

Last week, Future Retail also approached SC to allow it two week’s time to come up with a resolution to pay lenders so as to avoid the non-performing asset (NPA) tag. In SC, the lenders' counsel said that Amazon and Reliance are flush with funds and should agree to an open bid for Future Group’s assets. Lenders also said that their exposure to Future Retail is Rs 17,000 crore and if pushed by a year it will grow to Rs 25,000 crore.