The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Future Group in response to Amazon's plea.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Future Group in response to Amazon's appeal of the Delhi High Court's ruling on January 5 suspending the current arbitration proceedings before an arbitral tribunal over Future Retail's Rs 24,500-crore merger with Reliance Retail.

The Future group enterprises were served with notices by a bench consisting of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli, and the case was set for hearing on February 23.

The Amazon-Future arbitration, which is taking place before a three-member arbitral tribunal over the latter's Rs 24,500-crore deal with Reliance, was delayed by the Delhi High Court on January 5.

Amazon and the Future Group have been in a court dispute for over a year, with Amazon contesting Future Retail's merger with its competitor Reliance Retail.

Future Retail filed a petition with the Supreme Court on January 25 to avoid being deemed a defaulter for failing to pay loan dues of Rs 3,494.56 crore to its 26 lenders.

The company told the Supreme Court that the RBI and 26 banks, including SBI, IndusInd, DBS, HDFC, and Union Bank of India, sent default notices to it despite being aware of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its business/stores and the freeze on the sale of its small-format stores due to its ongoing dispute with Amazon.