Delhi HC restrains Singhs from selling assets till February 26

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday barred brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, former controlling shareholders of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, from selling or mortgaging their assets.

The court order will be effective till February 26, the next date of hearing of a plea for execution of the ₹3,500 crore arbitral award passed by a Singapore tribunal against Singh brothers and 12 others. The arbitral award was held to be enforceable by the high court on January 31.

“Maintain status-quo with respect to the assets till the next date of hearing,” justice Jayant Nath said.

The award had found Singh brothers and others guilty of making false claims in a eself-assessment report and of fraudulently misrepresenting and concealing the “genesis, nature and severity of the US regulatory investigations” of Ranbaxy when Daiichi Sankyo bought a 34.82% stake for $2.4 billion in 2008. The total deal value was $4.6 billion.

Counsels appearing for Daiichi argued before the court that execution proceedings were no mercy proceedings and prayed for an order restraining the brothers from siphoning off their assets. On February 16, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal by the brothers against the order of the Delhi high court allowing Daiichi to recover the award from them.