Supreme Court dismisses SLP against order restraining IDBI Bank from selling pledged shares of Future Retail

The Supreme Court has dismissed the Special Leave Petition against the Bombay High Court order restraining IDBI Bank and others from selling the pledged shares of Future Retail Ltd. (UBS AG London Branch vs Rural Fairprice Wholesale Ltd).After hearing the SLP preferred by UBS AG London Branch, a Divison Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and BR Gavai ordered, .The matter is listed before the High Court on May 4, 2020. We are of the view that the interim nature of the order is not likely to be interfered with under Article 136 of the Constitution. The Special Leave Petition is dismissed.Supreme Court.The matter was heard through video conferencing. .COVID-19: Bombay HC stays sale of MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd pledged shares by ICICI Home Finance Company Ltd.Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd is the promoter of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and the holding company of Rural Fairprice Wholesale Ltd..It had pledged the equity shares held by it in FRL, as security for the debentures issued by Rural Fairprice Wholesale Ltd..Threatening to sell these pledged shares, IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd, in its capacity as a debenture trustee, issued notices of default to Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd and Rural Fairprice Wholesale Ltd by reason of the latter’s inability to maintain the minimum-security cover stipulated in the Debenture Trust Deeds..Rural Fairprice Wholesale Ltd and Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd had then moved the Bombay High Court seeking urgent declaratory and injunctive relief against IDBI Bank and others in connection with the threatened invocation and/or sale of FRL shares..Considering the market conditions due to COVID-19 pandemic, the High Court had issued a temporary injunction on the sale notices issued by IDBI and others for sale of pledged FRL shares..UBS AG was represented by Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan, Advocate-on-record, Divyam Agarwal and Advocates Amar Gupta, Varghese Thomas, Hormuz Mehta, Yohaann Limatwala, Pallavi Kumar..Future Group was represented by Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Vikram Nankani, Vineet Naik with Advocates Ameet Naik, Mahesh Agarwal, Harshvardhan Jha and Advocate-on-record Yugandhara Pawar Jha..Read the Order: