The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the former promoters of Fortis, Manvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, two-week time sort out their plans to pay Rs 3,500 crore to Daiichi Sankyo. It is a part of an arbitration award passed against them by a Singapore tribunal. The Singh brothers were appearing before a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a case filed by Japanese drugmaker to explain the sale of Fortis Healthcare to IHH and possible contempt proceedings.
When the hearing was being conducted, senior lawyer Fali S Nariman, who was representing Daiichi, said that while Malvinder claimed he was trying to pay off all debts, Shivinder had become a sadhu (a sage).
The bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said that it is not about individual honour but it doesn’t look good for the country’s honour.
Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh had lost an appeal filed before a Singapore court in the Daiichi Sankyo arbitration case in December 2018 where they had argued against $500 million (Rs 3,500 crore) arbitration award against them. The High Court of Singapore had dismissed the plea to stay a Singapore tribunal arbitration award in favour of Japanese pharmaceutical major Daiichi Sankyo, and reserved its verdict.
Back in 2016, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre had issued an order to the Singh brothers to pay $500 million for hiding information and alleged suppression of facts at Ranbaxy Laboratories when its shares were sold to Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion in 2008. The case involved some 20 Ranbaxy shareholders who had sold a controlling stake in the multi-national pharmaceutical company to Daiichi.
