Singh Brothers Plead Not Guilty Of Violating Any Supreme Court Orders

Former Ranbaxy promoters — Malvinder and Shivinder Singh — on Thursday pleaded not guilty of violating any orders of the Supreme Court that had asked them to come out with a plan on how they would pay Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo the Rs 3,500-crore arbitral award by a Singapore tribunal.

The brothers have not submitted the plan as desired by the SC so far.

The SC had threatened them with a jail term at its last hearing on April 5 if it found that they had violated its order as it would amount to contempt of court.

The brothers, who were present in the apex court as per its April 5 direction, through their lawyers said no contempt directly or indirectly is made out against them for violating the SC orders or the undertakings given to the Delhi High Court, which is hearing the enforcement of award proceedings.

Malvinder, through his senior counsel Dushyant Dave, told a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that there is no question of contempt as RHC Holding, which he promotes, had repeatedly informed Indiabulls about the restraint orders passed by the SC regarding Fortis Healthcare’s (FHL) shares. Yet, Indiabulls went ahead and transferred pledged shares of Fortis Healthcare to itself.

Daiichi learnt of the transfer only after RHC filed its affidavit in September placing the fact that Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd had transferred 12,25,000 shares of FHL held by Fortis Healthcare Holding (FHHPL) to itself. He further said that the enforcement proceedings are still pending in the HC, all his bank accounts have been frozen and it was just a “civil contempt”.

His brother Shivinder told the SC that the contempt has risen for not following an interim order as the hearings on the main enforcement of arbitral award is still going on.

The contempt petition before SC has been filed by Daiichi complaining that the Singh brothers had violated its December 14 order by which it had put on hold the sale of controlling stake (31%) in FHL to the Malaysian firm, IHH Healthcare.

The Bench on Thursday reserved its judgment on the contempt petition.

Daiichi Sankyo is pursuing the enforcement of Rs 3,500-crore arbitration award against the Singh brothers pronounced by a Singapore tribunal for concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy Laboratories while selling it to it for $4.6 billion in 2008. – Financial Express