JOIN USSC warns Ranbaxy promoters; will hear contempt plea
The Supreme Court on Friday warned Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh that it would "straightaway" send them to jail, if it found them guilty of contempt of court on their failure to honour the international award.
A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi expressed dissatisfaction over their response to a query as to how they would pay back and secure the international award to pay Daiichi Sankyo about Rs about 4,000 Cr.
The Singhs, who personally appeared before the court, said that there were thousands of crore of assets of their companies but some were encumbered. They said their shares in Fortis and Religare could be “strategically” sold to pay the amount. One of the brothers also said he did not know the exact values of the assets.
On this, the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, said, “You may be entitled to own half of the world, but you can't tell your creditors that there are assets and you don't know their values.”
The court decided to consider contempt plea against the Singhs on Thursday, April 11. “If we find them guilty, we will straightaway send them to jail,” the bench said orally.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one of the brothers, said the money has been syphoned off by “some Babaji” and they have been duped. Senior advocate P S Patwalia appeared for another brother.
On a plea by senior advocate Fali S Nariman, the court also stayed the proceeding the National Company Law Tribunal.
The court was hearing a plea by Daiichi Sankyo to stall sale deal between Fortis and Malaysian healthcare group IHH Bhd. The Singhs had a shareholding in the chain of hospitals.
The Singapore International Arbitration Tribunal had ordered the Singhs to pay the amount for concealing information when its shares were sold to Japanese drugmaker Daiichi for US Dollar 4.6 billion in 2008.