[Amazon v Future] Arbitral tribunal must defer to findings, prima facie view of court: Harish Salve to Delhi High Court

In the Amazon-Future dispute, Senior Advocate Harish Salve argued before the Delhi High Court on Monday that when an Indian court gives a finding or expresses its prima facie view in a case, an arbitral tribunal has to defer to the same..Salve was making submissions for Future Retail Limited (FRL) in a batch of matters related to the ongoing dispute between e-commerce giant Amazon and Kishore Biyani-owned Future Group.Justice C Hari Shankar has been dealing with this batch of petitions..Salve referred to the December 2020 judgment of Justice Mukta Gupta to argue that the High Court had upheld the board resolution of FRL with regard to its deal with Reliance.He said that the Court has also held that the conflation of agreements between Future Coupons and Amazon on one side and Future Coupons and Future Retail on the other amounts to Amazon's control of Future Retail, which goes against the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).The only ground, Salve argued, that the single-judge did not agree with was the submission that the Emergency Arbitrator (EA) is a coram non-judice..It was therefore submitted that the arbitral tribunal, which upheld the award passed by the Emergency Arbitrator staying the agreement between FRL and Reliance, was contrary to observations of the single-judge.“The finding is clear as daylight. The finding is that these agreements cannot be conflated. The EA may have held to the contrary but when a High Court holds this then the tribunal must yield,” Salve said.He added,“Let a message go out clearly that where courts are concerned, it is not for the tribunal to second guess the supervising courts or any other court. However junior the judge, he has the imprimatur of Indian law. You can't jump over them.”.Salve added that if there is an interim view by a court and an interim view by a tribunal, the former must be followed.Justice Hari Shankar also said that he was in prima facie agreement with this view..The Court will continue hearing the arguments on Thursday..Amazon v. Future: The legal battle so far