Salve v. Subramanium at Singapore SC as Daiichi Sankyo hires former SG

The Supreme Court of Singapore has admitted Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium to appear in the case between the owners of Ranbaxy and Daiichi Sankyo.

This development follows the Court’s decision earlier this month to allow Harish Salve to appear for the Singh brothers, after it had initially disallowed the same.

Former Solicitor General (SG) of India Gopal Subramanium staked his claim to represent Daiichi Sankyo in the Court. His application came up for hearing yesterday before judge Steven Chong, who had initially shot down Salve’s application back in February.

Salve’s application was initially rejected because he could not show “special qualifications or experience for the purpose of the case”, as required under Section 15 of the Legal Profession Act of Singapore.

The judge also held that the evidence on Indian law pertaining to the case was not unusually complex or difficult “so as to be beyond the competence of local counsel”, and that allowing foreign counsel to argue in cases where foreign law was to be proved would set an “undesirable precedent”.

However, there seems to be a change of heart as regards allowing Indian lawyers to appear before the Court in this case. And once Salve was given the green signal to appear, it was only a matter of time before Daiichi hired an Indian counsel to represent them.

The case emanates from a Share Purchase and Share Subscription Agreement signed in June 2008, under which Daiichi purchased shares held by the sellers of Ranbaxy. The Singh brothers are challenging an arbitral award passed in April 2016, which ordered them to pay Daiichi more than Rs 2,500 crore in damages for allegedly concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy while selling their stake to the Japanese firm in 2008.

Daiichi Sankyo is also pursuing enforcement proceedings at the Delhi High Court, which reserved judgment in the matter back in September this year.