Daiichi-Ranbaxy arbitration case: Singh brothers hearing in Singapore Supreme Court starts today

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of Singapore will, from Monday, hear a plea by former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh that challenges Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo’s arbitration award.

A Singapore tribunal in 2016 awarded Daiichi Rs 3,500 crore in damages. In May that year, the company moved Delhi High Court to enforce the award. The Singhs appealed against it in Singapore as well as India.

“The final hearing will begin tomorrow in the Supreme Court of Singapore. Senior counsels of Malvinder and Shivinder Singh in Singapore will appear,” a person in the know told ET.

Senior advocate Harish Salve in 2017 filed an application to represent the Singh brothers. He sought an exemption from a Singapore law that generally bars foreign lawyers from appearing in local courts.

However, he was denied by the Singapore court.

Among other things, the court said no questions of Indian law were involved at that stage. Even at an earlier stage, when issues related to Indian law had arisen, the sellers had employed senior counsel from Singapore, the court noted, and only filed evidence from Indian law experts to defend their cases.

Delhi High Court in January 2018 ruled in favour of Daiichi.