NEW DELHI: Expressing dissatisfaction over the replies filed by former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh in response to its March 14 direction to submit a concrete plan for paying over Rs 3,500 crore awarded to Japanese drug firm Daiichi Sankyo by a Singapore tribunal, Supreme Court on Friday said they could be sentenced to jail for disobeying orders.
“We will go into the issue, why you violated our orders. We will send you to jail. We have given you a chance, but you are unable to pay,” the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said. The detailed hearing on the contempt petition against the Singhs was fixed on April 11.
Shivinder told the bench that his assets can be sold, and that he is yet to retrieve dues to the tune of Rs 6,300 crore from Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the head of the Radha Soami Satsang. Dhillon’s relationship with the Singhs is believed to be a crucial link that led to the downfall of the once-billionaire brothers.
“You may be owning half of the world, but there is no concrete plan as to how the arbitral amount would be realised. You said somebody owed you Rs 6,000 crore. But this is neither here nor there,” the bench said.
Shivinder said the total value of their assets after liquidation was nearly Rs 900 crore and if the court grants an opportunity, he could certainly work to grow these assets up to Rs 2,000 crore.
“The group’s situation has changed in the last couple of years,” he pleaded before the court, seeking more time to comply with the foreign arbitration.
This is not the first time that the apex court came down heavily on the brothers. In its March 14 hearing, the top court had said that it is now a matter of country’s honour that they clear their dues.
“You were the flag-bearers of the pharmacare industry and it doesn’t look good that you are appearing in court,” the bench had said last month. Then too, Shivinder, in his affidavit, had said that he had renounced the world, prompting Justice Gogoi to retort, “Renouncing the world is good for you, but not for us.”
It has been around three years since the tribunal awarded in favour of Daiichi in a case related to stake sale of Ranbaxy. Daiichi had bought Ranbaxy in 2008, but later it moved the Singapore arbitration tribunal, accusing Singh brothers of concealing information that Ranbaxy had been facing probe by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice, while selling its shares.
Later, Daiichi sold its stake in Ranbaxy to Sun Pharmaceuticals for Rs 22,679 crore in 2015. The brothers contested the award in Delhi High Court, which upheld the award last year.
As for the brothers who were once among the richest people in the country, they have lost their stakes in the flagship Fortis Healthcare, are facing multiple legal cases and even ‘fighting’ against each-other.